


Beauty And The Monster

by LollyHolly99



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Beauty and the Beast based au, F/M, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, M/M, Other, Reader Is Not Frisk, Reader-Insert, listen man things are weird here just roll w/ it, or at least there should be and hopefully i don't slip up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:10:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12034665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LollyHolly99/pseuds/LollyHolly99
Summary: In order to teach the monsters a lesson, the most powerful human mages sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. For the monsters to break this spell, and shatter the magical barrier sealing any exit to the mountain they were kept under, just one monster had to learn to love a human, and earn their love in return.The humans made a garden full of magic yellow flowers grow in the royal family's throne room, that could not be damaged or destroyed, but could not be affected positively, either. They would wilt over centuries, and when the flowers died, the spell would become entirely unbreakable.---Beauty and the Beast but in Underfell (with some changes to Underfell to try and make this work) in which Belle is some rando human and the beast is a lazy skeleton.





	1. Fallen

**Author's Note:**

> *vibrates* I've had this idea in mind for mONTHS and my newfound forced solitude at school has given me a chance to throw some words onto paper. hopefully this doesn't come off as rly dumb haha woooo  
> also rip in peace my other fics bc now I'm hype about this one and Damnit lolly stop starting new projects and not finishing others ;;;;;;  
> screm  
> enjoy <3

Long ago, two races ruled over Earth: Humans and Monsters.

However, it was not a peaceful existence. Monsters were a far more violent species than the humans, which inevitably left to conflict.

One day, war broke out between the two races.

After a long battle, the humans were victorious.

In order to teach the monsters a lesson, the most powerful human mages sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. For the monsters to break this spell, and shatter the magical barrier sealing any exit to the mountain they were kept under, just one monster had to learn to love a human, and earn their love in return.

The humans made a garden full of magic yellow flowers grow in the royal family's throne room, that could not be damaged or destroyed, but could not be affected positively, either. They would wilt over centuries, and when the flowers died, the spell would become entirely unbreakable.

For many, many years, the monsters were trapped in their underground prison, with the few humans who fell into Mt. Ebott disappearing quickly after killing a monster and stealing their soul to escape back through the barrier, as the spell allowed them to. So many years that monsters became mere myths and legends to the humans, doomed to be left forgotten, doomed to rot and die beneath the mountain.

* * *

"ugh...hello?" Sans greeted, fairly unimpressed after having been woken up with a phone call.

"S-Sans? It's me, Alphys. The king and queen want to see you. W-we're all here at the lab." spoke the voice from the other end.

"...fuck off." he responded, almost ending the call and rolling back over on the couch to go back to sleep. She'd pranked him like this before, he wasn't gonna-

"Damnit Sans! I'm s-serious!"

"hi serious, i'm sans."

The sound of the short lizard woman groaning came through the phone.

"Look, just get here quick. Th-this is actually important!"

She hung up before Sans could respond with any more witty comments. Well, shit. Now he had to cancel all his plans for the day, which consisted entirely of skipping work and sleeping.

Grabbing a bottle of mustard from the nearby table, he took a large swig and then took a shortcut to the royal scientist's lab.

* * *

Alphys shifted in her seat at her computer, anxiously awaiting Sans' arrival, as were King Asgore and Queen Toriel.

"A-are you sure Sans is the best choice for this? Will it work? I mean, he's abrasive, and disgusting, and he, he chugs whole bottles of mustard, for god's sake!"

Asgore glared at alphys for a moment before turning his attention back to the monitor on the wall. "Well, it's not like we have any better monsters for the job. Or anyone else who _could_ do it."

"Pardon me, your majesty, b-but literally anyone else would be better than Sans."

"No-one who isn't already bonded with another monster," Toriel began. "And no-one who doesn't attack humans on sight."

Alphys shrugged, as if to say "if you say so," and looked back to the screen.

The screen that showed live camera footage of a human. Unconscious and lying in the pile of flowers that had bloomed beneath the hole in Mount Ebott, illuminated by a single, teasing beam of sunlight.

It felt like forever since the last human fell down. How long had it really been? People made estimates - five, ten, twenty years - but no-one knew for sure. That human had escaped, just as all the others had. Killed a weak monster as soon as they discovered how the barrier worked, and ran away.

Nobody blamed them. They'd do the same in their position. And after all, the law of the land was "kill or be killed" down here, wasn't it?

Sans blipped into the lab at last. "you called?"

"Finally." Alphys huffed.

"Sans," Asgore began. "We have a task of utmost importance for you."

"shoot." Sans said, leaning on Alphys' desk and subsequently knocking over a handful of things, much to her annoyance.

Asgore pointed to the screen. "A human has fallen into the underground."

Sans looked up at it, surprised he'd missed it when he'd teleported in. "well, shit. would ya look at that."

"Quite." Toriel spoke up. "Now, I don't suppose I have to explain the conditions of the barrier's spell to you, do I?"

"monster loves human, human loves monster, break the barrier, yadda yadda, yep. who doesn't know it. what's that got to do with me though?"

"Well, Sans, we need _you_ to be that monster."

Sans' face went blank for a second. Then he burst out laughing. "you're kiddin' me, right? you want me to go charm some human? good one." His laughter died away, leaving his usual lazy smile. "nah. fuck that."

"You **will** do this, Sans." Asgore commanded. "We're running out of time - you've seen the flowers, how they're beginning to wilt. You are **not** going to doom us all to eternity under this mountain because of _your_ selfish actions."

"oh yeah? and what're ya gonna do if i say no?" he prodded, unfazed by the king's towering stance. It wasn't like he didn't want to be free just as much as everyone else, but this wasn't his job.

"It's not about what we will do if you don't, it's about what we will do if you do." said Toriel.

Sans looked back at her, confused. "hm?"

"If you do as we say - for once - we will have Captain Undyne accept your brother into the Royal Guard, no questions asked."

...Shit. That was an offer he couldn't refuse.

"He has been in training for quite a while, yes? And yet he has not been promoted from trainee, despite his considerable skill and dedication, for reasons unbeknownst to us. We will gladly offer him the position if you do this for us."

...Fuck.

"fine. but why me?"

"We've been unable to find any other qualified monsters." Asgore said, neglecting to mention that Sans would also be easy to... convince, what with the sake of Papyrus' dreams becoming reality being on the line.

"right. so what, you want me to go out there and get 'em now?"

"Preferably, yes. Before a more senseless monster finds them first."

"alright. see ya later, then."

"Before you go, Sans, I'd just like to let you know," Asgore said, walking closer to the short skeleton. "If you ruin this opportunity, kill the human, turn them away, destroy our chances of escaping in any manner, we can always ensure your brother **never** joins the Royal Guard."

Damnit.

"alright, ok, i gotcha. later." Sans said resignedly.

"Don't you d-dare fuck this up for all of us, asshole!" Alphys called as Sans disappeared.

He reappeared at the entrance to the ruins, sweating.

Better go find that human.

* * *

You awoke slowly and blinked your eyes open. When you fully came to, you sat up instantly, eyes darting around in your confusion. Where the hell were you? it was dark all around, except in the spot where you were laying - a patch of flowers, apparently. You were able to see them because of the sunlight beaming down from... the hole a couple hundred feet directly above you.

Right. Now you remembered how you got here. That'll teach you to go screwing around with your friend right next to mysterious holes up in the mountains.

After taking in your surroundings and figuring out how you got there, your biggest question was how the heck did you survive a fall like that? Sure, these flowers were soft, but not soft enough to stop you feeling any pain, let alone protect you from death after a drop from that high. Magic? was that it? Nah, magic's not real, duh.

...Oh god, was this the afterlife? Purgatory? Hell, heaven, whatever? Maybe the fall had killed you.

...You kind of expected whatever afterlife there might be to be a little more interesting than a pitch black room with a couple of flowers.

Or maybe this was a dream? A weird, weird dream. You pinched yourself to make sure and yelped in pain. Definitely not dreaming, probably not dead.

...Then what the hell _was_ this?

Your curiosity finally became too much and you got up and started to try navigating the darkened room. You stumbled around, arms outstretched, and after a while you hit what felt like a door made entirely of stone. You leaned on it with all your weight, and the surprisingly light door soon gave in and opened up, leading you to yet another dark room - bt this time, you could spot purple brick wall a short distance away, so you made your way towards that.

You continued forward, up some stairs, through purple hallways, completing some dangerous, but immensely easy puzzles along the way. And yet, not a single sign of any life was around, apart from a large black tree, surrounded by dead leaves. And then you saw it - a house. You knocked at the door a few times, calling out "Hello?" as you did, but gave up eventually and tentatively pushed it open.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

No response. You stepped inside.

The inside of the house was dilapidated, obviously abandoned a long time ago. None of the lights were on, leaving the house looking dim and depressing. And slightly unsettling.

You found the light switches and turned them on to see better as you explored the house - including some bedrooms, a living room, and some ominous-looking stars in the main hall. When you reached the kitchen, you noticed the tap and realised just how thirsty you were. You turned on the tap and silently thanked god that it was regular old water flowing into the sink and not some kind of... nightmare juice, or blood, or something.

You cupped your hands to drink the water since you couldn't find any actual cups, but ended up splashing it into your face in surprise a few moments later.

All the lights had suddenly turned off.

That wasn't comforting at all.

You crept around the house, jumping when you heard a suspicious creak behind you. You couldn't help but feel like you were in a bad horror movie or something.

Another creak. There was someone, or some _thing_ , in the house with you.

Had it come from down those weird stairs? There hadn't been anything in any of the rooms inside the house, so you supposed that had to be the case.

Your heart raced. What was this thing? Where was this place? What the fuck was happening?

A creak came from directly behind you, and you whipped around to see, but found only air in place of whatever caused the sound.

And then... a voice from behind you.

"hey human... don'tcha know how to greet a new pal?"

You were paralyzed by the deep, growling voice. This was it. If you weren't dead already, you were about to be.

"turn around and shake my hand."

Quaking in fear, you turned around to find... a living skeleton? It took you a second to fully take in the sight before you.

He was slightly shorter than you, but intimidating nonetheless. He had one gold tooth in his jaw, and wore a black zip-up hoodie with a fur-lined hood over a red turtleneck jumper and a pair of basketball shorts. On his feet were a pair of red and white trainers. And in his eye sockets were two glowing red circles for his eyes.

"well?" he asked, gesturing to his outstretched hand. "ya gonna keep starin' and bein' rude as fuck or are ya gonna shake it?"

You reached out to shake his hand, frightened of what might happen if you did, but more frightened of what he would do if you disobeyed.

You were met with what felt like an electric shock going through your hand, and retracted it almost immediately, yelping.

The skeleton burst into hearty laughter, then sighed. "heheh, the ol' hand buzzer trick. always funny."

It left you utterly flabbergasted. Was he here to kill you? _What was happening??_

"the name's sans. sans the skeleton. pleased to meet ya."


	2. Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You meet some new monsters and gain a place to sleep (and also a little bit of trauma for funsies).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take this moment to appreciate and thank all of y'all who read my fics and leave kudos and comments like you guys make me feel so loved and it definitely helps me get through crappy times like I'm dealing w/ right now. tysm friends <3
> 
> hope you guys enjoy the chapter :>

"so. human. what's your name, huh?" the skeleton, apparently named Sans, asked.  


"I-I... uh..." you stuttered, still afraid and utterly confused.  


"your name, it ain't that hard."  


"Y/N. U-um-"  


"well, Y/N, welcome to the underground. looks like i'll be your guide. c'mon," He began walking towards the stairs and gestured for you to follow him. "this way."  


"W-wait! The underground? What... what's going on?"  


Sans chuckled. "buddy, i'm sorry to say you went and fell inside a mountain. and now you're kinda... ehhh... stuck down here. forever."  


"Stuck?! Forever?!"  


"well, technically, not forever, but the chances of either of us leavin' anytime soon look preeeeetty slim."  


"B-but I can't- I-I have... Everybody back home's gonna wonder where I am!"  


"welp, they're gonna have to get used to not seein' ya around."  


The sudden new information and your fear finally got to you at that moment, and you dropped to your knees, sobbing into your hands. You couldn't be stuck here, you had a life to go back to! Friends and family, ambitions, responsibilities... you couldn't just drop them all like that!  


"ah, shit, come on," Sans sighed, trying to pick you back up. "stop cryin', i'm sure you'll end up gettin' yourself outta here at some point... somehow." He finally got you back to your feet and motioned for you to join him heading down the stairs. "c'mon, ya can't sit around here mopin' forever. ain't no point in doin' that. may as well make the most outta your time down here."  


You followed after him, wiping away your tears. "O-okay."  


Sans led you down another purple hallway, eventually reaching yet another stone door that he pushed open with ease. Light poured into the dim hallway, and you were let out to what appeared to be a snowy forest.  


"alright," Sans began, taking the first step out, the snow crunching beneath his feet. "stick close to me. it ain't safe out here for someone like you."  


"Okay." you said, closing any distance between the two of you.  


You walked together in silence for a short while before Sans finally spoke up.  


"so, are ya normally this quiet or do ya just not wanna talk to me?"  


"Well, I, uh-"  


"ain't no need to be scared of me, pal, protectin' ya's my job right now. c'mon, i know ya got questions."  


"Um, well..." You thought for a moment. "I don't wanna sound rude, but... how are you a skeleton, and, like, moving? How is it that I'm talking to a skeleton right now?"  


He snickered. "that's cus you're talkin' to a monster, buddy."  


You stepped back in surprise. "M-monster?"  


Sans stopped walking, turning to face you and gesturing all around him. "welcome to the underground, home of the monsters."  


"Wait, like in those old legends? I thought those were all just stories - everyone does."  


"wow, humans really did forget about us. pretty rude, don't you think? since you guys are the ones who trapped us here and all."  


"Man, I had no idea... So does that mean magic and stuff is real too?"  


"i dunno," A red bone suddenly materialised in his hand and he twirled it around lazily before making it disappear before your eyes. "what do you think?"  


You watched on in awe at the relatively simple display, but were far more fascinated by the general notion that magic was real than the bone trick. "Oh my god!"  


"that ain't even the half of it. now hey, come on, we don't wanna be outside for too long."  
You continued on, and another question finally came to mind.  


"Uh, where exactly are we going?"  


"my place. well, mine and my brother's. you'll be stayin' with us."  


"You have a brother?"  


"yep. named papyrus. bit of an asshole, but he ain't gonna hurt ya. he knows better than that."  


"Papyrus? Sans? Like the fonts?"  


"well, folks do say i'm a bit of a _comic_."  


You snickered. "You like jokes?"  


"ya could say that, yeah. i like to think i'm a pretty _humerus_ skeleton."  


Your reaction was instant, giggling at the pun.  
"what, i tickle your _funny bone_ with that one? heh, i've got a _skele-ton_ more where that came from, buddy."  


You laughed out loud at the onslaught of jokes, at which point Sans' expression became serious and he placed his hand over your mouth to quiet you.  


"alright, alright, enough of that. i like makin' people laugh, but i like not gettin' randomly attacked by some rando in the forest who might hear us even more. let's get a move on."  


The rest of the walk was pretty quiet after that. Sans brought you past a handful of puzzles, apparently put together by his brother, and informed you about your destination and some of the other monsters you might be meeting soon.  


"So, do all of these friends of yours live in this Snowdin place?"  


"ehhh, 'friends' is the wrong word. i'd describe 'em more as people who want me dead slightly less than everyone else. and nah, most of 'em live elsewhere."  


"O-oh..."  


"yeah, the underground ain't really a 'friendly' kinda place. i-" Sans suddenly stopped in his tracks at the sound of a nearby bush rustling and placed his hand on your shoulder to stop you, too. "...hold up." He looked around, listening out for something more. The same bush rustled once more and he swiftly turned to face it, conjuring a bone with a sharpened end and throwing it at the source of the noise.  


A large frog-like monster leapt out from behind the bush a second before it could be struck by the bone. Unfortunately for the frog, it was too slow to completely avoid the second bone that Sans threw its way not a moment later, and one of its legs was impaled by the attack. 

You gasped when it hit, watching on, wide-eyed, as a black dusty substance emanated from its wound.  


It growled at Sans, lunging at him using the leg it had left but falling short in its weakened state. It struggled to stand again, and Sans walked over it and stepped on its good leg.  


"thought ya could get the _jump_ on us, did ya?"  


The frog growled back once more in response. Sans kicked it and stepped back. "well, chump, ya shoulda tried a lil' harder than that."  


Suddenly, Sans raised his hand, and numerous bones rose up from the snow, skewering the frog monster. It cried out in pain for a few seconds, then disappeared, leaving nothing behind but a pile of the black dust you'd seen before. Sans turned back to you, looking satisfied, and shoved his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.  


"some people, am i right? welp, it was only a matter of time before he _croaked_."  


"O-oh my god..."  


You couldn't help but stare at the dust, trying to deal with what you'd just seen.  


Sans looked at you in confusion. "what?"  


"You... you k-killed it... oh my god..."  


"yeah? so what?"  


"So what?! What the fuck - you killed that frog!"  


"eh, froggits are a g a dozen. no need to get so worked up about it."  


"You killed it! Don't you even care?!"  


Sans rolled his eyes. "listen, when i said the underground ain't friendly, i meant this." He pointed at the dust pile. "i don't know what it's like up on the surface, but down here, the general philosophy's 'kill or be killed'. 's just how it is."  


"I... I can't believe..."  


Sans groaned. "look, ya can't act like this anytime ya see somebody die. that'll only get ya where they are."  


He approached you, and you backed off, trembling.  


"ugh, just come on, we gotta get somewhere not so out in the open."  


"N-no, I, I can't... I can't do this!"  


He groaned again, louder, and rolled his eyes once more at your current mental breakdown. "fine! fuck it! i'm supposed to be here to protect ya, but i ain't puttin' up with this shit. stay out here and worry about some monster who wanted ya dead and just fuckin' die. like i care!"  
He suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving you standing all by yourself, still crying over what you'd witnessed.  


* * *

Sans violently threw open the cupboards when he appeared again in the kitchen of his home, looking for the mustard he knew he'd stashed there. God, if he didn't need something to chill out with right now.  


"SANS? IS THAT YOU? I TOLD YOU TO STOP SLAMMING THOSE CUPBOARD DOORS, DAMNIT!" Papyrus called from upstairs. He was off-duty, and organising battle plans in his room.  


"yeah, sorry, boss. won't happen again." Sans lied.  


"WHAT DID THE KING AND QUEEN WANT?"  


"dunno. some shit about a human. don't really care."  


"WHAT EXACTLY ABOUT A HUMAN?"  


"fell, i guess. wanted me to watch 'em or something."  


"WHAT, FOR NOTHING IN RETURN? TSK. THAT'S JUST LIKE THEM."  


"well, actually, i... ah, shit."  


Sans was suddenly reminded of the offer they'd made, and the consequences they'd warned him of, and it broke through his frustration to let him think clearly.  


"paps, i gotta go, i'll see ya later!"  


"HUH? SANS, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"  


Before Papyrus could get a response, Sans had teleported away again.  


* * *

He found you crouched, arms around yourself, still in the same place as before, thank god. Who knows how lost - and dead - you could've been by now if you'd gotten over yourself and started wandering off.  


"alright, for god's sake, let's just get you outta here. i'm sorry for upsettin' ya with the whole froggit death thing or whatever. let's go." he said, offering you a hand.  


You avoided looking at him.  


He sighed frustratedly, and after a moment of sudden tightness in your chest and something feeling like it was pulling at all your limbs, you were standing once more. Then he grabbed your wrist and looked you in the eye.  


"look, you can be mad and upset and shit with me later. right now it's time to move. i've got a job to do and that kinda involves you not dyin'."  


He sighed. "now, brace yourself. first time shortcuttin's always the worst. gotta get it over with at some point though."  


You looked back at him, panicked. "S-shortcut?"  


Suddenly, you were surrounded by darkness, and a second later you found yourself in an unfamiliar place. A living room?  


And then you felt endlessly nauseous.  


The world spun around you, and you stumbled, falling into Sans and holding onto his hoodie for dear life.  


"Wh-what..."  


You barely heard Sans as he spoke. "yup, that's usually how it goes."  


Soon enough, you blacked out.  


* * *

A short while later, you awoke in... a bed? No, it wasn't a bed - what you were laying on turned out to be just a mattress on the floor. Comfy enough, though.  


"so you're finally back with us, eh?"  


You turned your head to find Sans standing next to the 'bed'.  


"What the hell? Wh-where am I?"  


"your new room, at least for the time bein'. welcome to the skeleton house."  


"Your house?"  


"and paps'. and now a little bit yours. it ain't like i want ya here, but hey, them's the breaks."  


"Why do I have to stay here?"  


"for your own safety. and cus of royal orders. now, i gotta give ya a few ground rules. one," He put up a bony finger each time he counted. "ya don't touch shit in this room. not the drawers, not the sock pile, and not the trash tornado."  


Looking around, you did indeed find everything he listed. Including the strange, self-contained mini tornado comprised entirely of garbage in the corner.  


"and that goes for my brother's room, too. off limits. ya don't touch anythin', ya don't move anythin', ya certainly don't break anythin', ya just straight up don't go in there. it's my ass on the choppin' block if ya do."  


You noddded.  


"two, ya don't answer the front door to nobody. me and my brother, we'll take care of that. who knows what kinda monster's tryin' to fuck with us. or you."  


You nodded.  


"three. ya don't say shit about my bro's cooking. his lasagna tastes like ass, but ya ain't gonna tell him. if ya really can't stand it, ya pretend to eat it or somethin' and we go out and get burgers or whatever."  


You nodded.  


"and four." He leaned closer and looked you in the eye. "you don't leave this house by yourself. if ya gotta leave, ya get me or paps to come with ya. if we're out and about together, ya stay where we can see ya. capiche?"  


You nodded. "Y-yes. Understood."  


"good." he said, his expression relaxing. "now, let's see, looks to be about..." He looked at his wrist, checking a watch that wasn't there, then grinned at you. "dinner time."  


As if on cue, a voice sounded from downstairs.  


"SANS! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE! DINNER'S READY!"  


"alright, paps, we're on our way!" Sans called back.  


He winked at you and walked away, motioning for you to follow him. You did so, and when you got downstairs, you found yourself looking at double the amount of skeletons than before. The new one - Papyrus, you guessed - was tall, much taller than his brother. He towered over you. He had a large crack in his skull that ran through one of his eye sockets, and he was clad in all black and red, much like Sans, wearing what looked to be armour. He looked you up and down for a second somewhat disapprovingly.  


"SO THIS IS THE HUMAN YOU'VE BROUGHT HOME?" Papyrus questioned, squinting.  


"yup. papyrus, meet Y/N. Y/N, papyrus." Sans answered.  


You waved nervously at the taller skeleton.  


"HMM. WELL, I SUPPOSE WE COULD HAVE WORSE PEOPLE STAYING WITH US. HELLO, Y/N."  


"H-hi, Papyrus. Uh, thanks for letting me stay here."  


"WELL, IT'S NOT LIKE I HAD A CHOICE." He shrugged. "BUT IT IS HOW IT IS. SO I SHALL BE... POLITE... AND HOSPITABLE... WHILST YOU ARE HERE." he huffed. "THAT INCLUDES FEEDING YOU. WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO THE MATTER AT HAND."  


Papyrus disappeared into the kitchen and returned moments later, carrying three plates of lasagna, two in his gloved hands and one perched on his head, and handed you and Sans each a plate as you sat on the couch.  


"SANS EXPLAINED WHILE YOU WERE OUT THAT YOU WOULD BE OUR GUEST FOR SOME WHILE, SO I MADE SURE TO PREPARE ENOUGH FOR YOU, TOO."  


He smirked, taking the plate from his head and sitting next to you two. "YOU KNOW, THIS SITUATION IS ACTUALLY VERY FORTUNATE FOR YOU. NOT ONLY DO YOU GET TO BE IN THE PRESENCE OF I, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS, YOU ALSO GET TO EAT MY COOKING! NYEH HEH HEH!"  


"Uh, yeah, thanks, Papyrus!"  


Sans gave you a knowing grin and rolled his eyes, then began eating the lasagna, as Papyrus had started doing.  


...Wait, how were they eating? They're skeletons!  


Sans noticed your staring at them and piped up. "not hungry, Y/N? ya haven't touched your food."  


"Oh! No, I just, uh... how do you guys eat with no throats, or stomachs, or whatever?"  
He twirled his fork around. "magic~"  


"Oh, right. That makes sense."  


"FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ON THE LOGISTICS OF THINGS, THE ANSWER IS USUALLY MAGIC." Papyrus told you between mouthfuls. "BUT ENOUGH OF THAT - PLEASE, EAT. BON APPETIT, HUMAN."  


"hey pap, don'tcha mean-"  


"SANS," He glared at the shorter skeleton. "DON'T."  


"... _bone_ appetit?"  


Papyrus groaned in frustration, but you couldn't help but chuckle at the exchange.  


"DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM, HUMAN. AND DON'T YOU START, EITHER. I WON'T TOLERATE TWO OF YOU JOKESTERS IN MY HOUSE."  


"Sorry, Papyrus." you said, still smiling.  


"WHATEVER. JUST EAT."  


You finally brought a bite of the lasagna to your mouth and tasted it.  


The taste was indescribable.  


"WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK? ISN'T IT MARVELLOUS?"  


You could feel Sans' gaze boring into you, and out of the corner of your eye, you saw that the lights in his eyes had disappeared. You remembered what he'd said before, and knew he was silently warning you that lying was your best option.  


"It's... it's great!" You forced yourself to swallow it and smile. "Best I've ever tasted!"  


Sans' face went back to normal. Phew.  


"BUT OF COURSE! THIS _IS_ ME AND MY COOKING WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. PLEASE, ENJOY!"  


Oh god. Now you had to eat the whole plateful. Unless...  


"A-actually!" you said, jumping to your feet and placing the plate down on the table. "One bite was so darn good that I, uh, I'm stuffed! I couldn't eat another thing! Wow! Thanks, Papyrus!"  


"WOWIE-UH, WOW! YOU REALLY ENJOYED IT THAT MUCH?" Papyrus seemed genuinely surprised, an excited spark hidden behind his usually intimidating eyes.  


"Y-yup!" You gave him a shaky thumbs up.  


"YES, WELL..." His face grew serious and he scoffed. "THAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED, _OBVIOUSLY_."  


"Yeah, so, uh... I'm gonna go to bed now. Gonna have a nap. I'm seriously tired after all that... delicious flavour! Of the lasagna!"  


"NAPPING ALREADY? YOU BASICALLY JUST WOKE UP THOUGH! YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS HE IS." He sighed, pointing to his brother. "BUT, I SUPPOSE THIS TIME IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE. FINE. REST WELL, HUMAN."  


You rushed off upstairs to your room, waving back at him hastily. Sans had finished his plate just in time, and got up.  


"guess i better go make sure they're not too overwhelmed by the food. might even take a nap myself." he said, teleporting to you before Papyrus could get at him.  


"hey there," he said, making you look up at him from the bed in surprise. "ya like the meal?"  


"No! God, no! How did you eat so much of it?"  


"when ya live with that cooking for as many years as i have and can't be fucked with cookin' anythin' yourself, ya kinda get used to the taste. anyways, ya still hungry?"  


"Starving. I think that one bite actually made me even more hungry than I already was. Like, hungry for something good."  


"alrighty. how's about we go to grillby's? my treat."  


"Grillby's?" you questioned, cocking your head.  


"'s a quaint little bar here in snowdin. got the best, greasiest food this side of the barrier."  


"Yeah, alright. I mean, as long as it's more edible than that, I'm down."  


"cool. we just gotta wait a little for pap to leave for his trainin' with undyne and i'll show ya there. unless... ya wanna take another shortcut with me?" He smirked.  


"Uh. No thanks. I'd rather not faint again."  


"well, second time, you're a lot less likely to pass out, but hey," He shrugged. "suit yourself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the further into this chapter I got the less impressed I was with the quality of my writing but ~oh well~
> 
> also happy birthday to the game that helped me get through equally crappy times when it came out 2 years ago woooooo
> 
> hmu @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com


	3. Calmer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You chat with the skeletons and have a nice meal with one of them. The other one is observant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Return  
> asdfghsdh so sorry this chapter took so long I've been a depressed bitch lately and I've been paying more attention to games and my birthday and garbage life stuffs rather than writing  
> bUT NOW I'M FEELIN INSPIRED so hopefully I'll be churning out some more stuff for y'all soon  
> enjoy <3

Eventually, Papyrus shouted to you two that he was leaving for a training session with a certain Captain Undyne, and Sans led you out into the streets of Snowdin.

"stick close." Sans reminded you. You nodded back at him.

You encountered no trouble on the way to the bar, apart from the snow getting into your shoes and soaking your feet.

Sans swung open the door and you looked around the bar. It wasn't quite 'quaint', but it was an interesting - and kind of frightening - place. Grillby's was filled with monsters of all shapes and sizes and kinds, including a group of large dogs in armour sitting at the table furthest back, playing poker. The patrons all turned their heads as Sans led you inside, obviously surprised at the sight of a guest with Sans. And a human, no less! A few of them greeted him over the bustling noise of the rest of the patrons - some joked, some called him names, one bunny monster seemed to even be flirting with him, which he fervently ignored.

The two of you reached the front of the bar, and Sans gestured to one of the stools by the counter. You took a seat, as did he, and a moment later, a monster made entirely of purple fire emerged from a door in the back.

"Well, well, well," the fire being - Grillby, you presumed - said, glancing between you and Sans and smirking. "Who's this guest my _favourite customer's_ brought along with him?" His reference to Sans was laced with plenty of sarcasm.

"would you believe it, grillbs, it's a human." Sans replied, patting your shoulder.

"That sure isn't a sight you see every day." Grillby remarked, looking you up and down for a second. "So, will you be buying them something or am I actually going to get paid today?"

"double order of burg." Sans replied, turning to you. "ya like burgers?"

You nodded. "Anything's fine after that... travesty of a meal."

Sans nodded at the fire monster in confirmation.

"And payment?" Grillby asked expectantly.

"eh, just put it on my tab."

Grillby scowled, then left through the door again.

"so," Sans began, reaching for a nearby bottle of mustard and squeezing a large amount of it into his mouth, at which you winced. "ya likin' the underground so far?"

"Uh, w-well, I can't say I'd rather be here than be home right now." you responded.

"aw, c'mon, it'll grow on ya." He took another swig of mustard before continuing. "ya scared?"

"Huh?"

"are ya scared down here? frightened of all the big scary monsters and our weird little world?"

"Um... yeah... pretty scared." You looked around, locking eyes with some sort of hamster monster in the corner for a split second before quickly looking back to Sans.

"good. 's good that you're scared. means ya got some kinda common sense. means ya got some thread of self-preservation in ya. if ya ain't scared, you're gonna get killed. or you're already dead, one of the two."

"Oh. Well, good, then."

"yup. just don't let no-one know. some fuckers down here'll take any sign of weakness they can spot and run with it."

"Okay."

Grillby arrived then with your food, then left after curtly telling you two to " _Enjoy_ ". He flipped Sans the fiery bird and left to serve other customers.

"yup, right back atcha, bud." Sans mumbled, chuckling. "well, dig in, Y/N."

You looked down at the food on your plate. It looked... pretty average.

Your stomach rumbled.

Whatever, average was just fine. Good, even. You loved average.

You took a large bite of the burger and _oh dang that's really good_.

"Oh man," you exclaimed, your mouth full. "this is so good!" You swallowed the bite and a tingling sensation ran throughout your body. "Holy hell, what was that?!"

"never had monster food, i assume." said Sans.

"Well, I had that forkful of your brother's lasagna, but that wasn't... there was this weird nice tingly feeling just now - that didn't happen back at your place."

" _real_ monster food, buddy. 's got healin' properties."

"...Magic?"

"cor-rect."

Sans tucked into his burger, and you wolfed down your own meal, being so hungry and all, and you felt slightly rejuvenated with each bite.

"wow, you really were hungry, huh?"

"Y-yeah, heh."

There was no more conversation between the two of you for a little while, which let you get to thinking.

"Hey, uh, Sans?" you piped up, looking off into the distance.

"yeah?" responded Sans as he shoved the last of his burger into his mouth.

"You said earlier that you've got some job, to like, keep me alive? Why?"

"orders from king asgore and queen toriel." he stated simply.

"Why do they want me alive?"

"eh, they think you're the key to freein' all us monsters from the underground. their last hope, or whatever."

"What?" you questioned, startled. "How am I supposed to do that?"

Sans shrugged. "don't remember." As if he was going to divulge the conditions of the spell and risk inciting some subconscious reverse psychology shit in you and ruin everything. Or acknowledge the reason you'd been placed in his care at all. "but it involves you bein' alive, so don't pull anything dumb, yeah?"

"Yeah. O-okay."

Sans pushed his plate away and stood up, gesturing towards the door. "ready to go?"

"Yup."

He headed for the door with you following after him, and you were back out in the snow once more.

You trudged through the fluffy snow, trying your best to avoid getting more of it in your shoes. Your skeletal escort, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Was he even cold? How was he able to wear those shorts in this kind of...

...Ah. Magical skeleton monster.

"Right." you muttered to yourself.

"huh? you say somethin'?" Sans asked, looking over at you.

"Oh, uh, no, I was just thinking out loud."

"yeah? 'bout what?"

"I, uh, felt kinda cold. I was wondering how you were still fine in those B-ball shorts, but, uh, then I realised. Magic."

"bingo."

He paused, raising an eyebrow. Bonebrow? Bony magical skeleton faces were weirdly expressive, apparently. "you're cold?"

"A little. I mean, it's all snowy out, but I'm not, like, hypothermia-cold. Just kinda chilly. Probably because I got used to how warm it was in the bar."

"hm. alright."

It was a quiet walk the rest of the way back, and thankfully, Papyrus was still out when you got there. On top of not knowing about your little excursion to Grillby's, you could relax without the taller skeleton around for a short while longer.

"welcome back to the skeleton house." Sans said, flopping onto the couch and turning the TV on. He patted the seat next to him, inviting you to sit down, and you accepted.

...This wasn't the most comfortable couch you'd ever sat on, to be honest.

Nevertheless, you did your best to relax into the slightly lumpy seat you'd taken and turned your attention to the screen.

There was some kind of giant sentient calculator(?) with four arms on the TV. It was tossing ingredients into a bowl haphazardly, with little regard for the mess it was making, save for the stray splatters that hit it, which it swiftly wiped away. You didn't question it, simply watching on as the calculator-robot made a big show of each step in its recipe and posing sexily (as sexily as a weird rectangular robot _could_ pose) on the countertop.

Looking over at Sans, he'd already nodded off, which took you a little by surprise, apparently disinterested in the cooking show. Understandably, really - cooking was more his brother's thing, after all.

You couldn't help but stare at the skeleton. He looked frightening when awake, with that fixed grin full of sharp teeth and his intimidating stance, but asleep, it all seemed to melt away. It hit you again how short he was compared to other monsters you'd seen, and even you, slightly. The way he was slumped on the couch made his fluffy hood bunch up a little around his skull, which almost looked cute. His clothed ribcage rose and fell as he breathed-

Wait, he breathes? Skeletons don't have lungs, though, what-

Before you could contemplate any further and come to your usual conclusion, Papyrus returned, throwing the front door open.

"SANS, HUMAN, I'M HO- IS THAT METTATON?!"

He rushed over to the empty space on the couch, watching the screen intently with widened eye sockets.

"Hello to you too, Papyrus." you said, giggling at his excitement. "Mettaton? Is that the robot?"

He nodded in response, clasping his hands together. "MHM. ISN'T HE GREAT? OF COURSE, NOT AS GREAT AS ME, BUT STILL."

"I mean, I guess."

You watched together quietly for a few minutes, until Papyrus' expression changed to a quizzical one and he turned to face you.

"AND WHAT MAKES _YOU_ SO GREAT? HMM? WHAT MAKES THEIR MAJESTIES WANT YOU TO BE KEPT AROUND?"

"Uh..." You thought for a second, unsure. "I don't know, exactly. Sans said something about me being their last hope? Some..." You waved your hand about. "...Obi Wan shit, or something."

"OH-BEE WHAT...? UGH, WHATEVER." He sat back and pondered for a moment. "'LAST HOPE'. WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD THEY M..."

Immediately, the skeleton sat up straight, his eye sockets widening. "OH MY GOD!" Leaping up from the couch, he pointed at you, inches away from touching your face. "THEY WANT YOU TO BREAK THE SPELL, DON'T THEY?"

Your eyes travelled down his finger and up to his intense gaze. "...Huh?"

"THE SPELL! IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW! BUT..." Another sudden change of demeanor, and he looked almost perplexed again. "BUT YOU... DO THEY REALLY WANT SANS TO... I MEAN, I SUPPOSE HE COULD..." he thought out loud.

"Papyrus, what-"

"EXCUSE ME."

Papyrus left without another word, still deep in thought as he went upstairs.

...What exactly just happened?

* * *

"hey. c'mon, wake up, Y/N."

Sans, with his hand on your shoulder, was shaking you awake. You'd fallen asleep on the couch next to him while watching TV, apparently.

"Uh, hey. how long was I asleep?"

"a lil' while. c'mon, let's go."

"Huh? Where to?"

"your room. thought ya might wanna sleep on an actual bed. or, y'know. somethin' more comfortable than this."

"Oh. Yeah, that'd be nice."

He led you up to the room you'd woken up in before, and opened one of his drawers, rooting around for something. You stood in the middle of the room, watching on as he found what he was looking for and threw it at you. A bundle of fabric, turning out to be an oversized t-shirt and some boxers.

"pyjamas." he stated simply. "bathroom's down the hall if ya need it, just don't make a mess and don't touch any of paps' weird mtt anime creams, or whatever they are."

"Okay. Uh, thanks, Sans."

He nodded to silently tell you "no problem" and turned to leave. "'night, i guess."

"Good night, Sans!" you replied, watching him leave. After changing into your pyjamas, you lay on the mattress, noticing the certain scent they both had. Mustard, somewhat smoky, a little musty...

You noticed after a few seconds that you'd had your face buried in the t-shirt to discern the scent and swiftly pulled it back down.

Within a handful of minutes, you were asleep again.

* * *

Papyrus found Sans setting up some blankets on the couch.

"BROTHER." he piped up, folding his arms.

"huh? yeah, boss?" Sans replied, dropping the blankets and turning to face Papyrus.

"THE HUMAN. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE PLAN WITH THEM?"

"what?"

"THE PLAN. THE REASON THE ROYALS WANT THEM HERE.

Sans froze. "uh... and... what might that be, bro?"

Papyrus groaned at his question. "BREAKING THE BARRIER, YOU NUMBSKULL. HAVING YOU TWO FIND AND RETURN AFFECTIONS FOR ONE ANOTHER."

_Shit._

"i, uh, dunno what you're talkin' about, paps."

"OH, COME ON, SANS, IT'S OBVIOUS. THEY'VE NEVER SPECIFICALLY TRIED TO KEEP A HUMAN ALIVE BEFORE, AS FAR AS I KNOW, AND IF THEY HAVE, THEY'VE NEVER ASSIGNED SPECIFIC MONSTERS TO WATCH OVER THEM. AND IF THERE WAS ANY OTHER REASON THEY WANTED THEM ALIVE, AND IF KEEPING THEM ALIVE WAS THE ONLY PRIORITY, THEY WOULD'VE BEEN PUT UNDER THE WATCH OF SOMEONE, ANYONE, MORE QUALIFIED TO PROTECT THEM. LIKE MYSELF. OR CAPTAIN UNDYNE. OR THE KING AND QUEEN THEMSELVES. YOU CAN'T PULL THE WOOL OVER MY EYE SOCKETS."

_Goddamnit._

"ugh, fine! yes, that's what they're gettin' me to do. happy?" said Sans, exasperatedly.

"NO."

" _for the love of-_ now what?"

"YOU NEED TO PUT MORE THAN MINIMAL EFFORT INTO THIS, I HOPE YOU KNOW. WE ALL WANT OUT OF THIS HELLHOLE."

Sans sighed, getting back to work on his makeshift bed. "yeah, pap, i fuckin' know, i'm workin' on it. can't say i'm super attracted to 'em right now though."

"WELL, JUST SO YOU KNOW, I WILL ABSOLUTELY BE GETTING INVOLVED IN THIS."

" _oh, you've gotta be kiddin' m-_ "

Papyrus forcefully turned Sans back around again, bending down to his level and poking him in the sternum as he spoke.

"I'M NOT JUST GOING TO SIT BACK AND WATCH YOU LET THIS CHANCE SLIP AWAY. SO HELP ME GOD, SANS, YOU AND THAT HUMAN ARE GOING TO FREE MONSTERKIND. OR MY NAME ISN'T THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS."

"well, i mean, it fuckin' ain't, you came up with most of it." Sans grumbled quietly.

"EXCUSE ME?"

"nothin'."

Papyrus huffed. "WELL, ANYWAY, FOR NOW I WILL BID YOU GOODNIGHT. He waved dismissively at Sans as he walked away, heading to his room.

"uh, yeah, night, pap." Sans replied as he disappeared up the stairs.

Alone again at last, Sans collapsed onto the couch.

Man, oh man, what a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is Papy gonna end up being this story's equivalent of Lumiere? stay tuned.  
> aaa so this chapter was gonna go further plot-wise but it got longer than I expected and was taking 5ever and I wanted to post something soonish so that other bit is gonna be a whole chapter in itself and I'm?? kinda proud of myself for that lmao  
> double Lolly-did-a-good: I actually have the next 2-3 chapters planned which is a new experience for my spontaneous-writing ass wooooooooooo  
> anyways feel free to come talk to me at lollyholly99.tumblr.com! I need to make myself some friends ;;;;


	4. Dust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As per the rules, work for Sans becomes "Bring Your Human To Work Day".  
> It doesn't go great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhhhhhhhhhh what's up guys I'm back again. at last.  
> so life's been really kicking the shit out of me so that's why I took so long w/ this one (or at least it feels like it. lolly keeping track of things?? never)  
> there was more to this chapter but I wanted to get something posted soon-ish and this seemed like an alright cutting-off point sooo here ya go! enjoy!  
> (also I made some adjustments to the ratings & such just to be safe? if i need to add anything else please do tell me! I'm rly useless with warnings and all that ^^;)

You came back to consciousness slowly, rubbing your eyes as you sat up.

"Man, what a weird dream..." You blinked your eyes open as you realised how odd your bed felt.

...This wasn't your bed. And this wasn't your room.

Oh. Right. Not a dream. Real life. Fell into a hole. Met some skeletons. Lots of danger about.

You spent a few minutes recalling the previous day, and everything that had happened. Skeletons, stuck here with them, frog death, bad lasagna, good burger. Some kind of spell? You explored the room as you did your remembering - but you didn't explore too much. That was a thing you remembered not to do.

A knock came at the door after a little while.

"hey, you up? i can hear ya movin' around in there." came Sans' gruff voice from behind the door.

"Yeah, I'm awake." you replied.

Sans opened the door and entered the room. "mornin', pal."

"Morning, Sans."

He handed you a plate holding a couple slices of toast. "here. eat up and get dressed. we're headin' out soon."

"Oh, thanks. Uh," you said, taking the plate. "Heading out?"

"work. you'll be stayin' with me at my sentry station today. can't just leave ya alone in the house all day."

"What, you're a sentry?" He didn't seem like the type to have a job as any kind of guard. Even though he was protecting you, he seemed reluctant.

"i'll let ya in on a lil' secret." he began, smirking. "the station's a front for a hot dog stand."

"Oh. Ok. That makes more sense. You sell hot dogs." you said, more to yourself than to Sans.

"and cats." he added.

"...That makes less sense."

"whatever. anyways, paps makes me do the sentry thing. couldn't tell ya why though. now come on and get eatin', or papyrus'll be back from his own patrol to kick our asses."

He left you alone with the toast, which you now noticed was kind of burnt. It was buttered, at least, so it wasn't unpleasant. And the monster magic healing tingle thing certainly helped.

Fully fed and eventually dressed, you followed after Sans, leaving the house to trudge through the snow once more.

* * *

God, were you ever bored.

Almost as soon as you'd reached the wooden stand you vaguely remembered seeing the other day, Sans sat down in the chair behind it, pulled out another, smaller, fold-out chair from beneath the stand for you (with a "sure was lucky for you i keep this around, eh?"), propped his feet up on the wood and promptly fell asleep, leaving you with little to keep you busy but watching the monsters who occasionally passed by, trying to assure yourself that none of them were going to murder you today. It wasn't the most fun, to say the least.

So far, all you'd seen from said monsters was a few weird looks. Some of them had to be directed at Sans, you thought (if only to make yourself feel better).

You wondered how long you'd been here. Hours? It sure felt like it. Unfortunately, you didn't have any kind of timekeeper on you, and the sky being replaced by a ceiling of rock meant you couldn't really use the sun to give you an idea of the time.

There had to be _something_ you could distract yourself with for the time being. Maybe... oh! You could count the trees! There were plenty around - it was sure to waste a decent chunk of time until Sans' shift was over.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... wait, did you count that one already? And... was this one even a tree?

Screw it, you were going to go insane doing this.

"Sans. Hey. Sans. Wake up." you said, shaking the sleeping skeleton by the arm. "Wake up, I'm bored as hell. Sans."

Despite your efforts, he stayed asleep, your increasing attempts to shake him awake only yielding a gentle, unconscious, almost cute, swat to your hand from him.

Great.

Wasn't this dangerous? He himself had been the one to tell you, on numerous occasions, how deadly some monsters were, especially if your guard was down. Sleeping, in your opinion, seemed like the _most_ "guard-down" situation to be in.

You groaned in frustration, dropping your head onto the stand. Could something, anything, just please happen?!

...Nothing dangerous, though, thanks.

As if deliberately answering your prayers, Papyrus appeared from through the trees a short distance away from you. Thank goodness, finally.

"Hi, Papyrus! How's, um, the patrol?" you greeted, with a little more enthusiasm than intended.

"HELLO, Y/N. I HAVE TO SAY, IT'S GOING QUITE WELL. SO FAR, THERE'S BEEN LITTLE TROUBLE, APART FROM SOME ROWDY TEENS TRYING TO PROVOKE A GYFTROT INTO A FIGHT. I STOPPED THEM SWIFTLY, THOUGH, OF COURSE."

You had no idea what a gyftrot was, but gave the tall skeleton a thumbs up and told him "Nice!" anyways.

His proud smile faded as his eyelights turned towards Sans. "IS MY BROTHER REALLY ASLEEP AT HIS POST AGAIN?"

He stomped over to where Sans sat and began shaking him, in much the same way you had been doing, but somewhat harsher.

"WAKE UP, YOU LAZY DOLT! YOU HAVE A JOB TO DO!"

Sans jolted awake almost instantly, surprising you with how quickly Papyrus had woken him compared to how hard you'd tried and failed.

"oh, uh, hey, pap." Sans said after blinking his eyesockets open.

"DON'T YOU 'HEY, PAP' ME, SANS - YOU FELL ASLEEP AT WORK, YET AGAIN."

"hm." Sans looked upwards as if in thought. "so i did."

Papyrus folded his arms with a disapproving "HMPH."

"what?" Sans shrugged. "i didn't sleep great last night. it was a pretty stressful day, don'tcha know."

"WELL, DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN. IF I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE, I'VE TOLD YOU A THOUSAND TIMES, TOO-"

"much sleep ain't healthy or anythin' yadda, yadda, i know, i know." the shorter skeleton interrupted. "okay, paps, whatever."

"GOOD. THEN I WILL BE ON MY WAY ONCE MORE." Papyrus went to leave, then stopped himself. "OH, AND ALSO, BROTHER..."

He leaned close to Sans and lowered his normally loud voice so you couldn't hear. "Remember To Keep An Eyesocket On The Human, Yes?"

Sans sighed, rolling his eyelights, his constant grin failing. "yep, will do, boss."

Papyrus stood up straight once more. "WELL THEN, GOODBYE, SANS. AND GOODBYE, Y/N - I SHALL SEE YOU LATER."

"Bye, Papyrus!" you called with a wave as he turned and left.

Your attention was caught then by Sans, mumbling under his breath, a fairly unimpressed expression painted on his face.

"So," you piped up, looking over at the skeleton next to you. "sup, Sleeping Beauty. Thanks for falling asleep and leaving me pretty much alone after telling me how dangerous the underworld is."

"under _ground_. and i woulda woken up if we'd been attacked or there'd been any actual danger nearby or somethin'. ya get a kinda sixth sense for stuff like that when you're a permanent resident here."

"Right. Well, how long have we been sitting here, anyways? It's gotta be time to go soon... right?"

"'s been about...pffffff....thirty minutes?"

You almost couldn't believe your ears. "You what."

Sans chuckled. "what, sick of bein' here already?"

"God, yes, I'm so bored, you wouldn't believe."

"why didn't ya just take a nap like me?"

"I mean, if the outside wasn't so dangerous like you've said, or I'd known about your sixth sense whatever, I would've."

"well," Sans began, stretching his arms. "can't say i'm opposed to skippin' the rest of work today. and paps already did his daily check-in, so, hey, let's bunk off."

You breathed a sigh of relief as he led you elsewhere - back through the forest, towards Snowdin.

"So, are we heading... home?" you enquired.

"well, yeah, unless ya wanna stay at grillb's all day or stay out in the snow or somethin'. there ain't much to do 'round here." Sans offered, shrugging. "used to be there was a library in town, but the owner got dusted a while back. now there's maybe... two books left there? the rest all got stolen. i think some monsters're livin' there illegally, but the guard can't never seem to catch 'em when they're there."

"Huh. Okay, um, yeah, guess we're heading home then."

You walked quietly with Sans for a few moments before questioning him again. "Dusted? What did you mean by that?"

He turned to you for a second, looking blankly at you, then looked forward again and answered. "remember the froggit from yesterday?"

All too well. You nodded back at the skeleton, swallowing hard, and you recalled everything. How quickly it had happened, how Sans had so brutally taken its life, how it had suddenly faded into that black... dusty... substance...

"Oh. Ok." You figured out what he'd meant quickly enough. "Killed."

"that's right, buddy. we monsters don't really got a proper physical form, we're made of magic mostly, so when we die, our bodies just up and turn into dust. hence, dusting."

"Wow, uh, ok." you said, trying to form any kind of response to the new information.

Sans continued to explain. "you're supposed to spread a monster's dust on their favourite thing, 's some old tradition or whatever, but it doesn't really happen anymore for the most part. i mean, 'natural causes' ain't really the most common cause of death 'round here, and it ain't like you're gonna pay the biggest respects to someone ya just murdered. and whatever family or friends ya might have'll be lucky to find your dust before it gets blown away or hidden or somethin', 'specially here in snowdin."

"Well. You learn something new every day."

"you betcha."

And then there was quiet again as you both made your way through the forest. Your mind drifted, your attention becoming focused on the satisfying crunching of the snow beneath your feet. Left, right, left, right, crunch, crunch... black.

A pile of black. You stopped mid-step, brought out of your snow-based trance.

Looking around, this area seemed... familiar. Something about the trees, the bushes...

Oh. This was the frog monster's dust.

Sans noticed your hesitation in your walking, and looked back to you. "huh? what's up with you?"

His gaze travelled to where yours was pointed, down at the used-to-be froggit.

"what, you're not still hung up on that, are ya?"

"A-a little." you stammered. "I, uh, I almost stepped in the... dust."

"do it. why not?" Sans suggested. "some dust on ya's sure to make ya look like a real killer. might keep some of these fuckers off ya."

"I'd... rather not, thanks." you responded, stepping carefully over the pile.

Sans shrugged. "suit yourself."

The two of you had barely continued walking when a voice yelled from up in the trees nearby.

"There! That's them!"

All of a sudden, a whole group of frog monsters dropped from the trees, about seven by your panicked count, half looking the same as the one Sans had killed before, half looking mostly the same, but bigger, and... spikier. They glared at the pair of you threateningly, and one of the bigger ones hopped forward.

"We know what you did to him, skeleton, human." it said, glowering at you both in turn.

"um, what?" Sans questioned, far calmer than you were at the moment, quaking in your boots, praying that Sans could handle this situation.

"One of our kind, skeleton! Do you not recall?"

"oh, yeah, sure, i recall, alright. ya mean..." Just then, he placed a foot in the dust pile before you. "...this thing? ya know he was plannin' to attack us first, yeah?"

The froggits became visibly angered at Sans' actions, taking on even more aggressive stances before forming an arc around you both.

Sans took note of the situation, placing a hand firmly in the middle of your chest to warn you to step back, which you did. The tension was thick in the air, as was the imminent sense of danger, making your heart race uncomfortably fast. The silent few second you had were feeling like entire minutes.

It was Sans' sneaky attempt to form a magical sharpened bone behind his back in preparation that changed it all. It wasn't quite as inconspicuous as he'd hoped, and one of the froggits had noticed. The monster lunged at him, drawing a loud gasp from you. Sans quickly reacted and swung the bone at it with considerable force, and it was sent practically flying back a few feet. But before he could even think to gloat about knocking down the one froggit, the rest had jumped into the air, aiming for him, their webbed feet raised up to reveal claw-like spikes under the toes.  
Sans teleported to the side to avoid them, leaving them all to collapse in a froggy heap, but was caught off guard by the one he'd fought off before, which had scrambled over and bit his exposed leg and made him cry out at the sudden pain. With a swift turn, he plunged the sharpened end of his bone into the top of the froggit's head, causing it to let go of Sans and fall to the ground, its life quickly drained. Another second more, and it disintegrated, turning into the same black dust as the one you'd seen before.

The other froggits were back up again now and throwing themselves at Sans, some spitting out what seemed to be flies at him. Every one of them missed, however, as he dodged to one side again. For the brief second he had before they attacked once more, you and he both looked at the spot where he had been bitten. It was leaking dust faintly, and you gasped at the sight, eyes widening. Apparently the froggit had had some pretty sharp teeth. Sans shrugged off the injury, though it clearly still hurt, judging by how he looked to be putting his weight on his other foot. He readied a handful of bones above him, aimed at the heap of frogs, and fired, hitting most of them and killing a few.

The, the remaining ones went to attack Sans again, but not all of them. Two of them had turned towards you, jumping your way, at which you screamed, thankfully managing to duck out of the way in time.

Sans, upon hearing you, looked your way, eyesockets blown wide open. His shocked face quickly turned to an angered one, and he hurriedly threw more bones in the direction of the froggits after him. He teleported once more, in front of you this time, and raised his hand.

Suddenly, a giant animal skull of some sort appeared above your head, and before the frogs could reach you, a great red beam of light shot from its mouth.

You watched on in shock as the froggits caught by the blast were completely disintegrated, leaving only more black dust behind.

In the next instant, Sans turned to face you, grabbing your arm tightly.

"we ain't stickin' around to see if there's more of 'em. hold on."

You had no time at all to react before everything went black for a second. Then you could see again, and your surroundings looked vaguely familiar, but you weren't sure where from - everything was blurred, and you felt incredibly dizzy. You fell down, landing flat on your ass on the floor of wherever you were.

"shit..." you heard Sans groan. "...hey, you alright there?"

Well, you weren't in any pain, per se, but you were barely able to focus on the skeleton's voice, what with the blurry room spinning before your eyes and all.

"Dizzy..." you responded as best you could, clutching your head in one hand.

Sans sighed. "god, fuckin'... fuckin' froggits... sick of 'em..." He groaned again. "they don't usually hunt in packs like that. man, what's got into 'em?"

You noticed the vague shape of Sans amongst your spinning vision, leaning down and offering a hand to help you up.

"c'mon, up ya get."

You took his hand and stood with all your effort, stumbling when you got to your feet and falling into Sans, who caught you under the arms.

"alrighty then."

A second later, he'd picked you up entirely, with far more ease than you would've expected, and placed you down again on something feeling kind of soft.

...You recognised this crappy couch. Of course. Sans had "shortcutted" you both to the skeletons' living room. Well, at least you didn't pass out this time. As your head began to clear, you saw Sans sit down next to you.

"welp, hopefully those assholes don't decide to fuck with us again after that. that was, what, like six of 'em i dusted there? better have learned their fuckin' lesson."

"Thanks..." you piped up, finally mostly un-dizzied.

"huh?"

"For saving me back there. Thankyou."

"hey, don't mention it. i mean, it's the least i could do. we all got a vested interest in keepin' ya alive."

"Oh. Um, yeah. That."

The room went quiet as you both caught your breath properly. Your eyes ended up drifting down to Sans' injured leg, now dripping some kind of red liquid, similar to blood, but slightly thicker, from the froggit-induced wound, with a gigantic crack running across his tibia.

"Oh my god," you exclaimed at the sight. "Are you ok? I-is your leg ok?"

"this?" Sans asked, moving his leg a little to emphasise, quickly realising it was a mistake and flinching a little, but shrugging off the pain soon after. "yeah, 'm fine. just need some sleep." he said calmly, as if his leg didn't currently look like something from out of a car crash. "no need to worry 'bout ol' sansy here."

But worried about Sansy - uh, Sans - you were. You didn't know much about magical skeleton biology, but that couldn'tve been good for him.

...And then he was asleep again.

God, how much could one person sleep?!

Well, you supposed you could excuse it right now, considering the "blood" (Bone marrow? Bone marrow.) running down his leg bones, and the crack. Speaking of which, you thought you should do something about that, since it didn't look like he was going to anytime soon.

You went looking around the house and grabbed some things - some flannels, or old dish rags or something, some water, some bandages - and returned to Sans. Then, rolling up your sleeves, you set to work on the skeleton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man this felt like a real monster (heh) of a chapter while i was writing it but it's really not as much as I thought?? it's still more than I tend to put out at one time but still  
> anyways wowie! how many froggits can I kill in this fic? a whole bunch apparently bc I wanted that scene in some form or another and could only think to do it as these guys avenging that one froggit B)  
> hmu @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com y'all let's be friends!


	5. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Papyrus deal with Sans' leg and spend the rest of the day at home. An offer is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fukc  
> guess who's back  
> I've been struggling with this chapter (much like my life in general rn) for a while? maybe bc I've also been trying to write other things but *shruggo*  
> welp I hope you enjoy this one!! merry early christmas (bc I doubt I'll end up posting more for y'all before the 25th lmao)!!

Sans awoke to you finishing up wrapping bandages around the wounded part of his leg, having done the best job you could with the knowledge and tools you had.

"what's all this?" he questioned, alerting you to his now being awake.

"Oh, hey." you greeted, looking up at him. "Well, uh, this... I had to do something to help you, since you helped me and all."

"uh, ok... thanks."

He was almost touched by the kind gesture - he'd said there was no need to worry, after all; why would you go out of your way to help him like this?

When you _literally_ touched him, however, testing how the bandages were holding up a little too roughly, all the sappy shit he'd just thought faded away.

"aah, shit!"

"O-oh my god, sorry, sorry, I just wanted to make sure- I didn't mean- your leg, I-" you stammered until Sans interrupted.

"don't sweat it, pal. i've dealt with worse. and ya did a pretty good job here."

He had to admit, the reassured smile you gave him at that was kind of adorable. It was refreshing; there wasn't much to be called 'adorable' in the underground.

"So, uh, what now?" you asked, getting up and sitting back next to him.

Sans shrugged. "not much, not til pap gets back, at least. and unlike me, he actually gives a shit about finishin' his shift, so that ain't gonna be for a good couple hou-"

Sans was cut off by the sound of the front door flying open. "SANS? HUMAN?" came Papyrus' voice, almost deliberately contradicting what Sans had said before.

"Speak of the devil," you chuckled.

"paps?" called Sans towards the door. Papyrus entered the living room, and Sans looked at him quizzically. "what's got you home so early?"

"WELL, WHILST I WAS OUT ON PATROL, SOMEONE HAPPENED TO MENTION TO ME THAT HE'D WITNESSED A RATHER NASTY FIGHT BREAK OUT BETWEEN SOME FROGGITS AND FINAL FROGGITS FROM THAT CLAN OF THEIRS, AND A CERTAIN BROTHER OF MINE." Papyrus explained. "HE TOLD ME YOU WERE ALIVE, AS WAS THE HUMAN, BUT THAT YOU'D LIMPED OVER TO THE HUMAN AND SUDDENLY VANISHED. AND WHEN I WENT LOOKING FOR YOU AND COULDN'T FIND YOU AT THAT BAR YOU LIKE, I NATURALLY ASSUMED YOU'D BE HERE, SINCE YOU LIKELY WOULDN'T BE ANYWHERE ELSE DURING WORK HOURS, AND IT SEEMS I WAS CORRECT."

"what, ya don't trust me to be at my post?" Sans asked with a mock frown.

"NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST."

"anyways, what's up?"

"WELL, I HAD TO MAKE SURE YOU WEREN'T DEAD OR SOMETHING, OF COURSE." Papyrus shrugged and shook his head. "YOU'RE AN ASS, BUT YOU'RE ALSO MY BROTHER, AND I'D PREFER YOU TO BE ALIVE AND HEALTHY AND... AND..." Papyrus pointed to Sans' leg, now noticing it. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THERE?"

"aw, pap, ya _do_ care." Sans placed a hand over his ribcage jokingly.

"SHUT UP. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOUR LEG?"

"what, this?" Sans asked, gesturing to his bandaged leg, which had - oh, whoops - started leaking again, marrow seeping through the material wrapped around the bones.

" _NO, THE OTHER ONE._ " Papyrus remarked sarcastically. "YES, THAT. WHAT. HAPPENED."

"what can i say? froggits've got some deceptively powerful jaws."

Papyrus grumbled. "TAKE OFF THE BANDAGES. I WANT TO SEE HOW BAD IT IS."

"what? but Y/N literally just got done puttin' 'em on."

"THEY DID?" Papyrus turned to you. "YOU DID THIS?"

You gave a small shy nod to him.

"WELL, I HAVE TO SAY," he said as he inspected your work. "THIS IS QUITE AN ALRIGHT JOB FOR SOMEONE WHO I ASSUME DOESN'T HAVE EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF MONSTER ANATOMY OR HEALING MAGIC."

"Oh, uh, thankyou!" you responded, smiling at the compliment from the particular skeleton.

"ANYWAY, WE'RE TAKING THESE OFF."

Papyrus knelt down and began removing the bandages without another thought, making Sans wince a little, and he grimaced at the amount of bone marrow once again seeping, and the large crack in Sans' leg that it was coming from.

"UGH... YOU GOT LUCKY, YOU KNOW. THE INJURY IS JUST MINOR ENOUGH THAT THE BANDAGES WERE SUFFICIENT TO PREVENT THIS GETTING ANY WORSE BEFORE I GOT HERE.

"Well, Sans," you chimed in. "Looks like you needed a little more than a nap, huh?"

Sans looked away, resting his head in his hand. "yeah, guess so. whatever."

"YOU WHAT?" Papyrus asked, ceasing looking over the leg to direct his gaze at his brother.

You answered for Sans. "He wanted to just sleep off the injury. I had to do this while he was asleep."

"SANS."

The shorter skeleton only shrugged. Papyrus sighed.

"SANS, FOR GOD'S SAKE. AS IF YOU WEREN'T UNHEALTHY ENOUGH, YOU WERE GOING TO JUST LEAVE THIS UNTENDED? HONESTLY, YOU NEED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOURSELF. _PLEASE._ "

"i... yeah, sure, pap." Sans said resignedly.

Papyrus looked carefully for any signs Sans might've been being disingenuous, but found none and looked back to the wound with a "HMPH."

"NOW, BACK TO THE MATTER AT HAND. LET'S SEE WHAT I CAN DO..."

Papyrus removed his gloves and placed them next to himself, then raised his hands to where the crack was. He closed his eye sockets, and a second later, a green glow emanated from his palms, and another from the wound a few inches away. Your eyes widened in awe as right before them, the crack lessened and lessened, until it was a fraction of the size it was before. The glow faded, and Papyrus opened his eye sockets and began to put on his gloves again.

"THERE YOU GO. IT'S NOT PERFECT, BUT IT WILL STOP THE LEAKING. GO EASY ON THAT LEG FOR NOW, ALRIGHT?"

"yeah, okay, paps... thanks." Sans gave a smile to his brother.

"YOU'RE QUITE WELCOME."

"Woah," you exclaimed, looking at the much improved wound. "So was that... healing magic? Like in your food?"

"YES, ANY ROYAL GUARD - OR GUARD IN TRAINING, FOR THAT MATTER - HAS TO HAVE SOME PRACTICE OF THE SKILL. WE ARE SUPPOSEDLY HERE TO PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNDERGROUND, AFTER ALL. AND IT DOESN'T HURT TO HAVE SUCH A USEFUL SKILL ANYWAY." he explained, finishing pulling on his second glove. "THAT WAS A MORE DIRECT FORM THAN FOOD, HOWEVER. IT'S BETTER FOR MORE SEVERE CASES. WHICH REMINDS ME..."

Papyrus dashed off to the kitchen and returned with a tupperware tub, filled with cold leftover lasagna, and a fork. He dropped it into Sans' lap and folded his arms.

"EAT UP. IT'LL HELP."

"okay. thanks, pap." Sans languidly brought a forkful of the stuff to his mouth, clearly not intending to finish it, and Papyrus turned to you.

"WOULD YOU WANT SOME, Y/N? I STILL HAVE PLENTY LEFT!"

"Oh, uh..." You hesitated, trying to think up an excuse as the skeleton looked at you expectantly. "No thanks, Papyrus. I'm still full after breakfast." Nailed it.

"WELL, IT'S IN THE FRIDGE IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND."

"I'll keep that in mind." you said, smiling up at him.

"AND WITH THAT, I SUPPOSE I SHALL BE LEAVING AGAIN. I _DO_ HAVE A JOB TO DO. GOODBYE, YOU TWO."

"yeah, alright. later, pap."

"Bye!"

Then, Papyrus turned and left, the sound of the front door opening and closing coming a few seconds later.

"well, i ain't gonna let the opportunity to slack off pass me by, 'specially if pap ain't gonna get at me for it this time." Sans piped up, putting the lasagna down. He stretched his arms and put his arms behind his head, leaning back into the couch properly to get comfortable.

As he began to close his eyesockets, you had a sudden thought.

"Hey, you're not going to sleep again, are you?"

"nah." Sans replied simply. "why do ya ask?"

"Well, y'know," You shrugged. "Don't wanna be left alone again."

"aw," He poked your cheek. "can't live without me already, huh?"

"Alone and _bored_." you emphasized, poking him back. For a second, you were distracted by how - surprise, surprise - his face didn't give at all under your touch. _Incredibly_ , the skeleton, made of bone, had a skull, also made of bone. But he could still emote and express?

Magic.

"why not put on the tv?"

"Eh, I dunno. doesn't sound too appealing right now, I guess."

"yeah, i gotcha. alright, ok, gimme a sec."

Before you could react, Sans disappeared momentarily, then reappeared, holding a short pile of books.

"ya like books?"

You nodded, looking from Sans to the pile, trying to spot any you might recognise. Somewhat surprisingly, a good portion of the pile were familiar.

"Where'd you get these?"

"my room. pap's room. a couple'a places."

"No, like, before that."

"library."

You blinked at him. "So when you said before that people had looted the place..."

"us included, yup. don't look at me like that, everybody did it. anyways, take your pick. 's _somethin'_ to do for now."

He dropped the pile between the two of you unceremoniously, picking a book up from the top of the pile and slouching back again to relax as he read. You looked through the pile a little before picking out some fantasy novel that looked decent. Something about everybody having a special magical talent each?

Your book lost your interest when you spotted Sans' out of the corner of your eye. Was that... a physics book? Like, _science_? Sans liked science?

Curiously, you began to peer over to see the pages of his book, even more perplexed when he chuckled as you did so.

...That wasn't science on the page, that was jokes. He had a smaller joke book hidden inside the physics book. But of course.

"hey," Sans said, noticing your peeking. "wanna hear one?"

"Uh," you hesitated. "Sure."

He cleared his throat (somehow, without one) and proceeded with reading the joke.

"ya hear about the guy who accidentally got buried alive?"

"Nope, what about him?"

"it was a _grave mistake_."

You snorted at the pun before bursting into proper laughter.

"ya like that one?" he said, smiling back at you.

You nodded. "Yeah, that was good. Really dumb, but good."

"well then, how 'bout this?" He looked back at the page and read aloud again. "give a man a plane ticket and he'll fly for a day. push a man outta a plane and he'll fly for the rest of his life."

Even heartier laughter burst from you at that point.

"okay, okay, here's another one. i got my blind friend a cheese grater for his birthday. next week, he told me it was the most violent book he's ever read!"

"Pfff-!" After wincing for a second at the mental image, your laughter only intensified to a point of almost wheezing, causing Sans to let out a few chuckles too. A little while longer, and your laughing petered off, and you sighed and caught your breath. "Alright, alright, dude, no more, I'm gonna die if you keep that up."

"heh, alrighty. can't have that happenin'."

He went back to his reading, but you interrupted him again, a question still on your mind.

"So, what's with the physics book?"

"eh?"

"The, uh," You pointed at the front cover. "That one."

"oh, what, this?" he asked, closing up the two books. "what, a guy can't enjoy a lil' bit of science?"

"Well, no, yeah, I was wondering if that was a thing you were into, but like, why put the joke book inside?"

He simply shrugged and winked at you in response. You didn't push it further. The two of you went back to your respective books once more, and that was that.

* * *

The rest of the day was fairly quiet after that. You read for a while, had some lunch (potato chips that Sans insisted on calling 'popato chisps' for some reason), watched some of that odd robot on TV, Papyrus came home, you "ate" his cooking for dinner, and soon enough, you found yourself wanting to do nothing more than go to bed. Papyrus had already turned in for the night, which left you and his brother to head on up.

"Man," you said, rubbing an eye. "I'm weirdly tired for how chill today's been. Post-what happened this morning, at least. I'm gonna go get some sleep." 

"yeah? think i'll join ya in that." Sans went to stand, but winced a little and then sat back down, reminded of the (lessened, but still prevalent) pain in his leg. "ah, shit, guess i ain't gonna get the couch ready with the blankets and all."

"You sleep on the couch? This thing?" you questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"yeah, it's whatever. comfy, uncomfortable, it ain't important to me."

"Do you, uh, want some help? I could go get the blankets, or, uh..."

"nah, don't sweat it. just go on up to my room and get some rest."

"Are you sure you don't wa-" You interrupted yourself. " _Your_ room?"

Sans realised his mistake as soon as you pointed it out.

"fuck." he sighed. "yeah, you're stayin' in my room right now."

Concern quickly spread across your face. "Oh, man, I didn't kick you out when I arrived, did I? I-I can take the couch, I don't want to intrude too much or-"

"don't worry about it." Sans said, waving his hand dismissively. "it's better this way, for a couple of reasons."

"You're sure?"

He smirked. "sure as sure. now c'mon, go the fuck to sleep."

Silence filled the room for a few moments as Sans lay down, and you stood there, unmoving, your hands clasped.

"...Do you wanna share the bed?"

"huh?"

"I mean, y'know... I know there's not an excessive amount of space, but like... there's definitely enough room for two, and it's your bed and all, and I feel kinda crappy about taking it up now that I know that, and... I don't know, we could find a way to make it not awkward, right?" A bright red blush grew on your face as you spoke, and you could feel your face burning up. "Sorry, that was weird, forget it."

"well, yeah, that was definitely weird," Sans said, the faintest of reds on his own face. "but thanks for tryin', pal. but, uh, no thanks."

"Right, right. Well, uh, goodnight."

"'night."

You made your way upstairs quickly and got into bed, opting not to get changed into your pyjamas and try and get straight to sleep after that embarassing little episode. Really, you hadn't meant anything by it, the offer was in your best intentions, but of course it was gonna end up being taken the wrong way.

After some further unwanted worrying over the incident, you at last fell asleep on the mattress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (did u know: that joke scene was originally gonna have waaay darker jokes and Reader was gonna be like "umm? that's fucked up and I'm uncomfortable now" and there was gonna be an awkward silence and then Reader breaks the ice with the Science but i wimped tf out trying to google/add any really dark jokes lmao)  
> another real dumb chapter done and done wooooooooo and something!! happening!! it's taking everything I have not to smush these two together but man I gotta take this shit slow for once and this pace!!! feels right I think!!!!!!  
> aaaanyways hope u liked it!  
> hmu at my tumblr @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com i want more friends ;;;  
> <3


	6. Snowstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Sans have to stay inside again today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god fuck shit I'm sorry I disappeared for so long I've been in the bIGGEST writing rut and life's been shit but hEY here's a thing!!! not my best and this probably doesn't make up for the wait but I'm getting somewhere at least!!  
> rip in peace to the person who wanted me to update a different fic of mine - i've just planned this one too much and all my others too little and also i have nEW SHIT I'M WRITING for my LATEST OBSESSION WHOOPS,,,,  
> bluhhhhhhhhhhh anyways I'm gonna stop feeling sorry for myself and let y'all get on w/ it hope you enjoy!!!

Winds raged beyond the snow-coated windows of the skeleton household, the only thing getting in being the chill the winds brought. Flakes of snow cascaded down, building piles ever higher than usual.

Snowdin town was experiencing a rare snowstorm.

Sans felt the brunt of it, being without anything more than his hoodie to wrap himself in, and not being bothered enough to turn the heating up or grab the blankets he'd neglected to last night. It was a good thing he was a skeleton, and temperature didn't affect him quite as much as it did others.

He got up, finding that his leg was giving him a lot less trouble than yesterday, and ambled over to the closest window. Not that he could see anything out of it. It was almost like staring at a piece of paper; the whole scene was white, and Sans could only just about make out the scene opposite the house through the deluge of snow.

"fuck that." he promptly decided, shoving his hands in his pockets and flopping back onto the couch. He lay there a short while, trying to get back to sleep, to laze the day away again. No fucking way was Papyrus getting him to go to work while that was going on. He was going to take a major nap.

Too bad for him you'd also ended up waking up, and had come downstairs, wrapped up in a blanket like it were an oversized shawl.

"Oh, hey, you're up." you said upon seeing him, midly surprised.

"sure am." Sans responded. "mornin', buddy."

"Morning." You stopped for a second on the way to the kitchen. "How do you guys even tell it's morning? You, uh, don't have the sun to go by, and I don't see any clocks around..."

"well, i can't hear paps, and he ain't raged at me for sleepin' in and not goin' to work, so i know he ain't already gone to train with fishface, so he's gotta still be in bed. which means it's pretty damn early in the nornin'."

"Wow, uh, that's some good deduction."

"thanks. also," he added, pulling out his phone to show you the screen, reading 5.27. "phone's set to the right time. checked it when i woke up."

"Oh." You were less impressed after that revelation. "Man, is it really that early?"

Sans nodded slowly.

"Damn. No wonder I'm so tired, you normally wouldn't catch me dead awake at this kind of hour."

"ain't that a little bit contradictory? wouldn't catch ya _dead awake_?"

"Well, I... you know what I mean!"

Sans chuckled at your phrasing, going back to laying on the couch, eyes closed, arms behind his head.

"I'm gonna go get some breakfast." you announced, heading to the kitchen.

"hm, wow, you're sure gettin' comfortable here, huh? gettin' food as ya please, askin' tons of questions 'bout me 'n' paps..." Sans teased.

You froze, then turned to face him again, panicking. "Oh man, I'm sorry! I thought... sorry, I'll ask next ti-"

"pff, i'm just kiddin'. 's good. means i don't have to baby ya."

You breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he wasn't mad at you. "So, uh, can I go get breakfast?"

"what, ya think i'm gonna make ya fuckin' starve or somethin'? c'mon, go. eat."

"R-right." You disappeared into the kitchen, returning with not one, but two bowls of cereal a minute or two later. Sans was confused for a second, until you sat by him and handed one over to him.

"Thought you might want some." you said before digging into your own bowl.

"uh, thanks."

He sat up and languidly shoveled a few spoonfuls into his mouth, then decided to turn on the TV so you weren't just sitting and eating amongst awkward silence. The same robot monster, Mettaton, was back on again, and you wondered what portion of the airwaves he took up (or, really, if said portion was any less than 100%).

You stopped wondering when a chill hit you, and you shivered, almost spilling some of the contents of your bowl.

"Ugh, it's way cold down here today." you stated, pulling your blanket further around you.

"tell me 'bout it." Sans responded, his mouth full of cereal.

"Oh, man, are you cold? Here, let me just..."

You took off the blanket, and then threw it over the two of you. Thankfully, it was big enough to manage to cover both of you fully, and kept all the cold air away, for the most part.

"Is that better?"

"i mean, i don't feel the cold as bad as you do, but, uh, yeah. thanks again."

You looked towards the window - towards the view of the storm outside. "Man, that's really raging, huh? How do you even get weather, especially like that, when you're, y'know, underground?"

"i'll give ya three guesses."

Why had you even asked? "Magic."

Papyrus, at last, came downstairs then, already dressed in his armour. He was definitely surprised to see the two of you already up - his lazy brother moreso.

"WELL, GOOD MORNING, SANS, HUMAN." he greeted.

"mornin'."

"Good morning!"

"I'D QUESTION HOW YOU TWO MANAGED TO GET UP BY YOURSELF BEFORE MIDDAY, BROTHER, BUT I CAN'T STAY LONG - UNDYNE HAS REQUESTED MY PRESENCE FOR A SPECIAL TRAINING SESSION."

"you're really gonna go out in that just to cook?" Sans questioned.

"IT'S NOT SNOWING IN UNDYNE'S KITCHEN, SANS. IT'S NOT LIKE I'LL BE AMONGST THE STORM ALL DAY. BESIDES, I'M NOT MAKING YOU GO TO WORK, SO WHAT DOES IT MATTER?"

"woah, what? ya ain't gonna drag me out there?"

"OF COURSE NOT, THAT SNOWSTORM IS AWFUL. NOT EVEN I WOULD EXPECT YOU TO SIT AT YOUR POST IN THIS WEATHER."

"And probably nobody else is going to be outside, committing crimes or whatever, when it's as bad as this, right?" you piped up.

"EXACTLY RIGHT, HUMAN, THAT TOO. AND WHAT WITH THE HUMAN BEING WITH YOU, AND YOUR BAD LEG, HOW COULD I EXPECT YOU TO DO THAT?"

"well, damn," Sans said, fairly surprised. "thanks, paps."

"AND," Papyrus added, leaning in to speak more quietly to Sans. "I Think Some Extra Time Alone With The Human Would Be Beneficial, Don't You Agree?"

Sans rolled his eyes. "yeah, okay, sure, fine."

"Make. Some. Progress. Sans."

"whatever."

A goodbye from everyone later, and a wink from Papyrus to Sans that confused you a little, and Papyrus had left.

The skeleton you'd been left with sighed exasperatedly. "welp, looks like 's just us two for the day. again."

* * *

The rest of the morning was uneventful - the pile of books was brought back out again, this time you picked out some dystopian thing.

Unfortunately, doing nothing but reading during your time there was proving to be a little dull already; you spent half the time reading, and the other half with your mind wandering. Your eyes, too.

You took the moment of silence and stillness to look at Sans out of the corner of your eye. To really look at him and take him in. You'd grown used to the sight of him in your short time in the underground, but he was still fascinating. Even while he slept (Oh, okay, he was napping again.), the bone in his face would shift, and his chest would heave, as though he had muscles and lungs like any human.

You leaned over, looking even more closely. His eyes were able to close, somehow, though you guessed him sleeping with those mostly empty sockets wide open would be weirder than these movable bone eyelids or whatever was happening. Of course, _all of this_ was weird. How Sans closed his eyes was probably the least questionable thing in this place, but it still intrigued you to no end at the current time.

Without even thinking, you reached out and touched his face, poking at his cheekbones. They didn't give at all, despite the almost skin-like, squishy look of them when he moved his mouth.

You were broken out of your bony-face-based trance and quickly retracted your hand, fearing you'd woken him up, when his hand moved to yours to sleepily push it away. Your fears were confirmed as he spoke to you.

"ugh... ya just can't let a guy grab some shut-eye, can ya?"

"Oh, crap, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, I-"

"why were ya touchin' my face?"

"Uh..." You looked away from him, embarrassed. "J-just curious."

"about my face?"

"Yeah, uh, well, I... never mind. I'm just weird, I guess."

"you're bored again, ain'tcha?"

You wondered how he managed to hit the nail right on the head, and nodded. "A little."

He sighed, scratching his skull. "hmm, well... shit, i dunno, we got checkers and stuff, if ya want somethin' other than tv or books for a little while."

"Uh, sure, yeah. Checkers sounds good."

He disappeared, as he sometimes did, and reappeared in front of the couch moments later, game in hand.

"i gotta warn ya," he said as he set the board on the floor in front of you. "a good couple of the pieces're missin'. thing's been like that since we found it at the dump."

You watched on as he counted out the pieces, taking a few away from the black ones to even out the number, then placing them on the board.

"well," he piped up when he was done, gesturing to the board. "shall we?"

You joined him on the floor, a slight upgrade to their couch, sitting opposite him. And so it began, with Sans taking the first move.

* * *

He was a better strategist than you would've thought. And you both became more engrossed in playing the game than either of you would have expected. One game turned into a "best of 3" mini tournament, which turned into "best of 5". You'd played in a calm, comfortable, relative silence, but by the fifth game, you'd had enough time to look at the chequered board thoroughly - at every knot in the wood, every scratch, every chip, every discoloured area - and you thought back to what Sans had mentioned earlier. Then you decided to make some conversation.

"So... do you normally get stuff from garbage dumps, or was this game a special case?" you asked, jokingly.

"actually, yeah. the dump's generally where we get all our stuff from." Sans responded, moving one of his pieces.

"Oh."

"yeah, it all comes from the surface. you humans just chuck all this shit down where we are, and sometimes it's some really good shit, so it only makes sense to grab it up. 's not like we can get stuff to live kinda-comfortable lives anywhere else, y'know?"

"Man," you mused, making your next move. "So all your stuff's... second-hand, from humans who don't even know or care."

Sans shrugged. "don't count yourself out there, bud. you've probably thrown somethin' of yours down here."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

"don't sweat it. like i said, if ya didn't, we wouldn't have too much."

You thought for a few moments as Sans took his turn.

"When we get up to the surface... if I can break that spell for you guys, somehow... I'm gonna get you a brand new checkers set. One without any missing pieces."

"that ain't necessary." Sans replied, not skipping a beat.

"Well, I want to thank you for helping me out down here and letting me stay with you and all _somehow_. So, yeah. Necessary."

"this one's just fine. and me and paps ain't that into checkers enough to care too much anyways. besides, breakin' the barrier'll be thanks enough.

"No, I've gotta do something..." you thought aloud. "...okay, not your hand-me-down checkers set, how about-"

"y'know what else'll be a decent thanks?" Sans interrupted, slightly exasperated. "makin' your move so we can keep this game runnin'."

"Oh. S-sorry." You did so, managing to capture one of Sans' pieces.

He hummed thoughtfully as he looked at the new situation on the board, entirely ignoring the previous conversation.

You, however, were still considering what to do _outside_ of the game.

* * *

The snowstorm was still raging outside by the time you and the skeletons were heading to bed. And inside the house, it had gotten colder.

You were helping Sans out with fixing up his temporary bed on the couch, Papyrus having gone upstairs already, when you heard a soft noise akin to... well, if you had to describe it, like a xylophone and a mallet being put in a bag and shaken around.

"Woah," you exclaimed. "What was that?"

"what was what?" Sans responded, fairly disinterested.

"That noise. It was kind of like... like a faint rattling, I guess?"

The skeleton shrugged and turned back to what he was doing, and you followed. Then the noise came again. It sounded like it was coming from Sans' direction. In fact, it turned out he was actually shaking.

You pointed at Sans. "It's you! The noise is coming from you! Your bones are all rattly!"

He looked at you. "yeah? so what?"

"So..." Your eyes flitted to the window, then back again. A chill ran by you, making you shiver, and it really hit you. "...you're cold, aren't you?"

He merely shrugged again in response.

You hesitated for a second, thinking over what you were about to say, then sighed. "Look, I... I know you said no when I asked about staying in the same bed the other night, and I don't want to bug you or make you uncomfortable or anything, but..."

"...but?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"...but... I just, there's enough space in there for both of us, and I'm just gonna feel bad if I leave you down here in the cold all night, so-"

"so ya want me to stay in my bed with ya, right?"

You avoided his gaze. "L-like I said before, I don't mean anything unsavoury by it! I just wanna make you have to sleep downstairs on this thing, especially not tonight."

Sans pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "if i do, will it get ya to shut up about all this?"

You nodded in response, not trusting yourself to say anything.

It was his turn to sigh now. "alright. fuck it. upstairs, let's go."

* * *

Getting into bed with Sans was awkward to say the least. Getting to sleep, however, was the biggest problem.

You managed to squish yourself onto the opposite sides of the bed, facing entirely away from eachother, before bidding one another good night and making an attempt at sleeping. Sans, of course, nodded off almost instantly. But despite the new, surprisingly warm and comforting presence in bed with you, you were kept up.

You sighed, willing your brain to just please stop thinking about what to do when you got out of this place. And on top of that, your uncertainty of how to break that spell everyone's on about. Or even if you could break it.

You got to sleep eventually though, thank goodness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they did a sleep! woo!  
> ok now I've got this chapter out of the way I think I'll have the motivation to write more? I think I got this now. I got _plans_.  
> there's like 1000 things I wanna say rn but it's like 1am and I wanna sleep hhhhhhhhhhhh lATER,,  
> anyways again hope you liked this one!! hmu @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com if you wanna scream abt things w/ me. i need friends.  
> <3


	7. Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're going on a phone hunt. We're going to find a... a one. And fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm. not fond of this chapter lmao.  
> but it's smth i guess ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ and at least this week's writing rut's kind of over  
> enjoy maybe~

Sans seemed to be on a streak of waking up because of, and to, you lately.

Even with how he could (and did) end up sprawled out on his bed, you'd managed to shuffle far closer to him than you'd been when the two of your went to sleep the night before, one arm draped over his ribcage. One of his own arms had managed to make its way around your shoulders as well, somehow.

Well, it wasn't _quite_ what he expected to wake up to.

He quickly untangled you both, thanking the stars that you only stirred and didn't wake and make a fuss over your positioning. Then, assured you were still asleep for now, he made his way to the window, checking if the state of the weather had changed overnight. Yup, no more crazy amounts of snow. Well, no more than usual.

The thought of _So, what now?_ briefly lingered in his head before he heard you moving about. Of course the universe wouldn't allow him too much time to himself before you joined him in being awake.

"Mmh... hey, morning, Sans." you mumbled, sitting up and stretching.

He sighed before turning around to greet you. "mornin', Y/N."

"Man, I was just having this really weird dream that... hey, are you okay?"

Sans cocked a brow at you interrupting yourself. "uh, yeah? why'd ya ask?"

"Well, uh, you're kind of red in the face..."

"huh?" He quickly raised his hand to touch his face, as if that would give him any indication as to how red his face was, before shaking his skull. "it's nothin'. whatever. what were ya sayin' before?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah," you responded, ignoring the previous subject, just as Sans hoped you would. "I was having this dream, and... well, you're probably not interested, but basically, my phone turned into butter, and it kept slipping out of my hands while I was trying to text you."

"your phone, huh? weird."

"Yeah, my ph-" You paused, having a realisation. "Oh man, my phone! It was in my pocket when I went up the mountain, but... Agh, I can't believe I didn't notice when I fell, it's been gone this whole time!"

"...sure took ya a while to notice, didn't it?"

"Yeah, heh... hey, uh... could we head back to the place I fell down? I'd kind of like to go look for it."

Sans quietly weighed up the pros and cons of a little excursion out to the ruins in his mind. Well, it _would_ be a decent excuse to do mostly nothing for some amount of time...

"yeah, okay, alright. but first, breakfast."

* * *

You ended up back at the flowers you'd fallen on when you first came down here after a quick one of Sans' shortcuts. He was right, the first few were the worst - but they were getting easier on you each time.

"alright," he stated, letting go of you and putting his hands back in his hoodie pockets. "here we are. take a look around, see if the thing's around here somewhere."

"Y-yeah, right. On it." you uttered, recovering from your dizziness. You searched the room, checking high and low, in each nook and cranny and corner, for your phone. It wasn't the simplest task, considering the only properly lit area was the patch of flowers in the middle of the room.

Said patch of flowers was the last place you decided to investigate before you gave up and decided it was good and gone, and, as the old addage goes, it's always in the last place you look. You found the phone on the floor amongst the blooms, screen slightly cracked and case scratched up a little, but otherwise in damn good condition. You guessed whatever the flowers had done to protect you from your fall, they'd done for the phone as well.

Probably - _definitely_ \- some kind of magic. you mused.

"Found it!" you exclaimed, holding it aloft.

"nice. alright, let's head on back, i gue-"

"Wait," you interrupted without thinking as you tried turning the phone on - to no avail. "Ah, damnit."

"what's the problem?" Sans enquired.

"I... ugh, I think it's broken."

"huh. that's a shame."

"Yeah. Damn, I really thought this might be of some kind of use, y'know?"

"...lemme see that." Sans said, holding out his hand.

You gave the phone to him, and he looked it over, seeming to be thoroughly analysing it.

"hmm, yeah..." he said thoughtfully. "yeah, okay."

"Okay?"

He handed it back to you. "i think i could call in a lil' favour with alphys. she'll be able to fix this, for sure."

"Alphys..." You recognised the name and thought for a second, trying to recall what Sans had told you before about some of his acquaintances. "...science...lizard?"

He smirked. "that's the one."

"She can really fix this?" you asked, a hint of excitement in your voice.

"pal, if she can make a sentient, egotistical, asshole robot, she can do a job like this."

"Oh, man, you mean she made that Mettaton guy?"

"regrettably, yeah. anyways," he said, linking arms with you. "hold on tight. we're headin' to hotland."

You gripped his arm with a tired groan, knowing exactly why he said to hold on, and before you could say anything along the lines of "Ugh, again?" you were gone.

* * *

It was a quiet day at the lab. Alphys managed to drag herself away from binging the new anime she'd found, and was getting some work done, looking over the piles of paper on her desk and sorting through them.

"Done with this one... terrible idea..." she muttered to herself, placing the papers in various piles. "Has potential... oh, _god_ , what was I thinking with this one? Ugh... garbage... garbage..."

"hey alph, whatcha doin'?" came a voice from behind her all of a sudden.

She almost jumped straight out of her skin at the sound, clutching her chest, then she turned to face the voice's owner when her fear had melted into anger.

"F-f-for the love of god, Sans, y-you can't just teleport on in here w-whenever you please!"

Sans nodded, a smug smile on his face. "mhm. ya didn't answer my question, alphys."

She sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Well, s-since you're so damn interested, I was sorting out all this paperwork. Most of it's complete trash, so I'm gonna get rid of most of it. Now what the fuck do you want?"

"think you could give Y/N's phone a look over? seems like it's busted." He gestured to you, standing just behind him, phone in hand, and Alphys wondred how she hadn't noticed you until then.

"O-oh! The human!"

You waved (a little awkwardly) at Alphys and introduced yourself. "Hi! I'm Y/N. It's, uh, nice to meet you!"

Alphys gave a small nod in return. "Likewise, sure. S-so, what's this about a phone?"

You gave it to her, and she turned it over in her hands, testing out the buttons and inspecting it closely.

"...Yeah, I can fix this." Alphys turned her gaze then to leer at Sans. "B-but why should I? I have better things to do, you know!"

"because why _wouldn't_ ya wanna help out your ol' pal?"

"We're not 'pals', Sa-"

"and also," he added, almost through gritted teeth. "i just thought you'd be a little more open to givin' us a little help, since we're... _they're_ , y'know, _supposed to break the fuckin' barrier_?"

She scowled at Sans. "...Give me like 10 minutes."

And at that, she wandered off deeper into her lab.

* * *

She returned almost exactly 10 minutes later, on the dot, and handed the phone back to you.

"Okay, s-so, it's back in working condition, and it should pretty much be the same as before, b-but I decided to add some functions. Mostly Undernet, which I got you signed up for, and I made sure it can actually make calls and stuff down here."

She went on more for some time, explaining the upgrades she'd made in detail, earning a small eye roll from Sans.

"So, uh," you half-interrupted, not incredibly interested in most of the features. "Do you think I could call people on the surface? Like, my family, my friends..."

She shook her head. "As much as I would've loved to make that an option, w-we're just too far underground to get any radio wave-based signal."

You sighed. "Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Thanks anyway, Alphys."

"Hm." She turned to Sans, an annoyed look on her face. "I know this wasn't too big of a job, but you still owe me, a-alright?"

"yeah, okay." Sans responded, shrugging. "don't worry, you'll get repaid later on."

"How much later, huh?"

"oh, just about when i help getcha outta this place ya spend all your time watchin' anime down here and into a place where ya can spend all your time watchin' anime up on the surface. y'know, like my job's kinda become at the moment?"

Alphys scoffed. "Whatever, just get out of here. I've got m-more important stuff to do than keep you and the human entertained."

"sure thing, alph. hey, Y/N, let's go."

Without a word more, he took hold of your wrist and shortcutted you both back to the skeletons' home - and in an instant, you were left dizzy yet again.

"Ugh... Can you give me more warning before you do that? _Please_?"

Sans chuckled. "i'll think about it."

You flopped onto the couch, clutching your spinning head, and Sans followed.

"oh, hey, before i forget," Sans piped up again. "lemme get your number."

You blinked in surprise at the request. "H-huh?"

"can i get your phone number? it'd be useful for us to keep in contact if we get separated for whatever reason." he repeated in clarification.

"Oh, uh... yeah, sure."

With that, you quickly swapped numbers. As Sans went to put his phone back in his pocket, it buzzed, and he groaned, pulling it back out to check it. You looked over curiously, but he turned away to hide the screen, and you didn't pry further, opting instead to investigate your own phone a little.

Turns out Alphys had sent a text.

[Hey, didn't look like it, so I'm guessing not, but have you gotten _anywhere_ with them yet?? if anime's taught me anything, it's that you guys are in the perfect position to just!! fucking!! fall in love and free us already!!]

Sans could almost flip his shit. Instead, however, he responded in a slightly calmer manner.

{bite me}

{this is real life not your shitty cartoons}

{gimme some time}

The response he got was almost instant.

[Okay first off, they're not just shitty cartoons]

[And second, just please give some kind of fuck about this whole thing]

[Everyone's counting on this, dumbass]

Sans threw the phone down next to him where he sat and huffed.

"...You alright there?" you asked, noticing the action.

"yeah, yeah. fine."

Sans thought for a second. Where the hell exactly was he supposed to start? Small talk or something?

...Small talk. Yeah.

"so... how are you?"

* * *

Once late evening had come around, after a mostly uneventful day at Sans' guard post, Sans had had an idea. And not one that he was enjoying entertaining the thought of, but one that might be necessary in progressing the whole 'break the barrier' plan.

"hey, uh..." he began, hesitant, as you both were getting ready to head to bed. "so, heads up, i'm gonna move back into my bed permanently again. 'm not gonna kick ya out - that'd be a real dick move - but, y'know. since last night wasn't terrible, i'd rather sleep where i'm comfortable."

"Um, yeah, okay. Cool." you responded, pretty unfazed.

No fuss. Good. Great.

...Time to take one of them all night naps, he guessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> phhhhhhhhbblllt OOTD is that sweat suit that just says "i have given up" all over  
> hopefully next chapter is better and doesn't take me 5ever to write or w/e!!  
> lots to say here and yet also nothing at all so I'll just say pray for me and my obsessive ass that can't enjoy media in moderation ( °٢° )  
> come!! let's be friends!! lollyholly99.tumblr.com hmu y'all!!  
> <3


	8. Splenetic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's not having the best day, to say the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back fuckers  
> sorry I took so long ;;; here have this  
> hope y'all enjoy!! <3

It was a particularly bad morning for Sans. Not for any reason that he could fathom - maybe a bad dream he couldn't recall? Well, whichever way it happened, he was in a bad mood when he woke up, his mind stuck on all the things he was sick to death of thinking about. Miserable, irritable, generally pissed off and upset... It would inevitably be a shitty day, what with such a shitty start like this, he was sure.

He curled up in on himself under the covers, wrapping himself up in the duvet with little care for how much he was pulling it off of you. He just wanted to hide away, maybe to suffocate himself in this fabric cocoon he was forming around him. Yeah, that'd be-

_Ring, ring..._

Sans groaned in frustration. Did somebody _really_ have to be calling him _right now_?

He reached out from his bubble to grab his phone, dragging it back in with him. Asgore's name flashed on the screen. He was half-tempted to ignore the call, but knew it'd come back to bite him in the ass if it did, so he decided otherwise, pressing 'accept'.

"whaddya want?" he answered with a sigh.

" _Sans_." came the king's voice down the line, not sounding pleased - but that wasn't all that rare, really. " _Friend_. How have you been?"

"oh, y'know," Sans responded in not too dissimilar a tone. " _peachy_. i mean, i'm only puttin' up with all this bullshit, right? and how's about yourself, your highness?"

"Well, I've been keeping a rather close eye on the garden. Can you guess what the state of the flowers is right now?"

"ah. shoulda guessed ya wouldn't just be callin' just to check up on how i am. it ain't like ya to do that. do tell."

"They're wilting, Sans, faster than they used to. Not at an incredible rate, but noticeably enough."

"and?"

" _And_ , it had me wondering if you had put any work at all into the task you've been given."

"oh, for fuck's sake-"

"Tell me, what exactly do you and the human think of eachother?"

"ya say 'task' like it's somethin' i can do on purpose, and not somethin' souls and minds and shit just do on their own, whether we like it or not. all of ya are actin' like that."

"You're dodging the question."

Sans groaned again. "yeah, alright, fuck it, ya wanna know? Y/N and i? we both think we're assholes. and i especially think you're an asshole. happy?"

"Hmph." The skeleton could practically hear the disapproval in Asgore's voice. "You know, if you weren't such a valuable asset to us, I would have dusted you long before now."

"i'd say i'd like to see ya fuckin' try, dreemurr, but i really don't give enough of a damn at the moment. now leave me alone."

Sans hung up without a second thought, and threw the phone away, to the other side of the room. He didn't see where it landed, having swiftly hidden himself away under the duvet again, grumbling to himself.

"gah, stupid fuckin' goat... get off my case, would ya?"

He wanted to go back to sleep so badly, just to shut out everything, to do what little he could to avoid even his own thoughts, but for once he found himself unable to drift off. So instead, he lay there, stewing, in the silence of the room. 

You stirred next to him suddenly, pulling the covers back over yourself and rolling over closer to him. Then you sleepily moved an arm over him, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"oh, **for fuck's sake**!" He shoved your arm away roughly, and grabbed the duvet once more to wrap himself up.

"...Mmh... Sans?" you mumbled, finally awoken.

He didn't respond.

"Sans?" you repeated. "You awake?"

Of course he was. He knew you knew he was. What else woke you up but his being awake?

"...You alright there?" you asked, hesitation clear in your voice.

"'m fine. just great." he muttered bitterly, hoping that would be the end of it.

"You, uh... are you sure?"

"oh _my god_ \- yes, i'm goddamn sure! just fuck off already!"

"Um... okay." You didn't press him on the subject, instead choosing to get out of bed. You went to leave the room, and stopped in the doorway. "I'm... gonna go get some breakfast."

When you finally left, as he could tell from the door shutting, he sighed again. Maybe now he'd get some peace - which seemed to be the case.

He was thankful to be left alone for some time. He laid there in the sweet, sweet silence by himself, and thanked whatever cosmic powers that watched over him for not making him have to deal with anything else. Now, if he could only be allowed to sleep...

"SANS!"

...Sans almost flipped at the sound of his brother's voice.

The door was opened again, and Papyrus strode in, and though he couldn't see him, the shorter skeleton knew he was standing right by his bed, stupid gloved hands on his stupid hips, stupid scowl on his stupid face. He was only proved right when the covers were pulled off him.

"SO, WERE YOU PLANNING ON GETTING UP ANYTIME SOON? OR ARE YOU GOING TO SKIP WORK YET AGAIN?"

"no. yes. bite me." Sans responded, trying to snatch the bedding back, but to no avail as the taller skeleton pulled it just out of reach.

"OH, I SEE. IN ONE OF YOUR MOODS TODAY?" Papyrus asked, almost mockingly.

He got no response, Sans instead taking his pillow and hiding his skull away beneath it.

Papyrus huffed, dropping the duvet. "FINE. I'M NOT GOING TO STAND HERE ALL DAY AND TRY AND CONVINCE YOU TO GET OUT OF BED, I HAVE PLACES TO BE. A PATROL TO BE DOING."

Sans heard Papyrus' footsteps leading away, then him speaking again.

"FEEL FREE TO JOIN ME AT WORK WHEN YOU'RE READY TO QUIT SULKING."

More footsteps - away from his room and down the stairs, he assumed. He would've flipped off the empty space where Papyrus had been, if he'd cared enough to do so.

* * *

You faintly heard Papyrus' very-not-inside voice from down in the kitchen, shortly before seeing him appear in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Oh! Hey Papyrus! Good morning!" you greeted, putting away the cereal box you'd previously grabbed.

"AND TO YOU TOO, Y/N." he responded, leaning on the door frame. "AT LEAST SOMEONE'S CHIPPER TODAY."

You shrugged, reaching into the cupboards to take out a mustard bottle. Sans liked to drink mustard, right? You were sure you'd seen a bright yellow bottle raised to his... lips(?) a few times.

Papyrus took note of the two bowls and two beverages (well, one drink, one condiment) before you, on a tray you'd found for easier carrying, and scoffed.

"WHAT, HAS MY BROTHER GOT YOU ACTING AS HIS PERSONAL LITTLE SERVANT NOW?"

You blinked at him, confused by the question, then followed his line of sight down to the breakfast.

"Oh!" you exclaimed in realisation. "Nah, I just... y'know, I thought it'd be nice if I got him some food, too, since he doesn't seem too up to the task right now. I mean, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? Even for ticked off skeletons."

"I SUPPOSE SO."

He went to leave, but you quickly piped up.

"Oh, hey, Papyrus? Uh, speaking of Sans..."

"HMM?"

"Do you, uh... do you know what's going on with him? I woke up and he just seemed really grumpy and angry."

"ISN'T HE ALWAYS GRUMPY AND ANGRY THOUGH?" he retorted, smirking.

You had to chuckle a little at that. "You know what I mean. More than usual."

The skeleton sighed. "HE GETS LIKE THIS ON OCCASION. THERE'S NO RHYME OR REASON TO IT, AS FAR AS I CAN TELL. EVERY SO OFTEN HE WAKES UP IN A BAD MOOD AND REFUSES TO DO ANYTHING BUT LAY IN BED ALL DAY AND BE ESPECIALLY SURLY. SOMETIMES I CATCH HIM BAWLING LIKE A BABY BONES, BUT HE'LL DENY IT TO HELL AND BACK IF YOU EVER TRY AND BRING IT UP."

"Huh. Okay." you said, taking in the information.

"HE CAN CERTAINLY BE A HASSLE ON DAYS LIKE THESE. I CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL A LITTLE SORRY FOR YOU, Y/N, SINCE YOU'LL BE STUCK IN THE HOUSE PUTTING UP WITH HIM ALL DAY." He made his way to the front door then, giving you a small wave as he went. "WELL, I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK WITH HIM. FAREWELL!"

"Uh, okay! Bye!"

With that, he left, and you headed for Sans' room, tray in hand.

As you climbed the stairs, a thought ran through your mind, Papyrus' voice repeating in your ears - " _ISN'T HE ALWAYS GRUMPY AND ANGRY THOUGH?_ ". Well, not really. Not exactly. You didn't know why you agreed. Sure, he definitely had more than his fair share of not-so-chill moments, but... he seemed nice enough underneath. Even if you hadn't seen an extraordinary amount of that side of him.

All you had to do was draw it out.

Sans was still wrapped up like he'd been before you left, and you paused when you saw him, wondering in what way you should approach the matter at hand. He beat you to the punch, though.  
"look, Y/N, i know you're there, i heard ya walk in. just tell me whatcha want already, would ya? or stop standin' around and get outta here, and leave me alone."

Thankfully, it seemed a few minutes had been enough to let him chill out a little. Not to a great extent, but just enough to be somewhat approachable.

"Well... would you mind coming out from there?"

"hm. yeah. i would." he responded simply.

"C'mon, please?"

"ughh, fine!" he growled, throwing off the covers. "if it gets ya to stop buggin' me fo-" He paused upon seeing the tray you were carrying. "what the fuck?"

"I got you some cereal." you said, giving him a soft smile.

"...didn't ask." he muttered, re-arranging his pillow a little, making to hide away in bed again.

"I know you didn't. I just thought, y'know, why not?"

You handed him a bowl and the mustard, the former of which he took reluctantly, but the latter he quickly accepted and took a sip from. He looked over at you in a prickly manner when you went to sit beside him, but soon turned his attention back to the bowl of cereal he held.

"ya didn't have to do this." he mumbled through a languidly spooned mouthful a few moments later. "ya could'a just eaten by yourself, ya know."

"Well," you retorted. "What if I _wanted_ to?"

"alright, lemme rephrase that. what if _i didn't_ want ya to do this? what if i wanted to just wallow in my own stupid bullshit all day, 'stead of listenin' to yours and everybody else's?"

You strained yourself just a little to keep smiling - someone had to bring some positivity to the room, after all. "I don't think I could let you. I mean, we're... we're friends, right?"

"huh?"

"Yeah, and... what kind of friend could I be if I let you go on like this all day?"

Sans looked at you, unimpressed. "not friends."

"What?"

"i ain't callin' ya a friend. don't ask, i got my reasons."

"Uh... yeah, okay. I'm sure you do." You chose to listen to him and not ask why, and finally dug into your own food.

Minutes passed you both by in the tense room, the two of you quietly sitting by eachother as you ate.

You were the one to break the silence at last.

"So... what's this 'bullshit' of yours you were gonna wallow in?"

Sans huffed. "don't wanna talk about it."

"You sure? It helps to get stuff off your chest, y'know. Or, uh, ribcage? Anyways, Papyrus said this kind of thing goes on with you sometimes. It might not make it completely go away, but maybe talking could help with this at least a little?"

" _i don't wanna_."

"...I won't tell anybody about it if that's what you're worried about."

He was quiet for a few seconds, and you almost went to tell him it's okay, he didn't have to if he really didn't want to, but you were interrupted.

"ya wouldn't believe me even if i did wanna tell ya."

You snickered. "I mean, considering my whole situation recently? I think I'd believe anything at this point."

Silence again from the skeleton. Then a deep, resigned sigh. "ya ever get deja vu? some real powerful 'i've done this shit already' thoughts?"

You nodded.

"alright, well, imagine it's not just a feelin'. ya have done that shit already. but you're the only one who remembers."

With an almost incredulous look from you at that, he stopped talking and groaned.

"see? ya think i'm a crazy person. why'd i even fuckin' bother?"

"N-no!" you protested. "No, I believe you. Please... continue?"

He was hesitant, but did so. "so, ya do all this shit, big and important or otherwise, and everythin's great... and then, in the blink of an eye, it's all gone. you're back a few days, a few weeks, more maybe - whatever whichever force is behind it all feels like that time around. and it keeps happenin', over and over, and eventually... ya just can't give a shit anymore, because what's the goddamn point?"

You were silenced for a moment, taken aback by the story. "Wow. Uh. Damn."

"yeah... and every now and then, i end up thinkin' about it too hard, and i give even less of a shit than usual, and i have a big ol' 'give up' day."

"God, I... I'm sorry, Sans. Man, I can't fathom what that's gotta be like."

"'s fine, ya don't have to apologise. you didn't cause this; i'm just cursed, or somethin'." he assured, stirring his cereal languidly. "or, hell, maybe i _am_ crazy. maybe this shithole finally got to me and i snapped, and my fucked up head's just real good at guessin' what's gonna come next... heh, wouldn't that be a hell of an explanation?"

"...Well... I don't think you're crazy. I mean, stranger things have happened, right? What reason would I have to not believe you, when I've already fallen into a magical world of monsters and been told I'm crucial to setting them free?"

Sans paused, not quite knowing how to respond.

"And," you continued, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, to which he shrunk away just a little. "Even if it is just in your head or whatever, that doesn't detract from your situation. The fact of the matter is, you're feeling bad about this stuff, whether it happened or not, and that sucks. But... now you've got an open ear to listen to you, for what that's worth. So, uh, yeah."

It took the skeleton a few more moments before he found himself speaking again. "geez, uh... thanks. i think i'm all talked out for today, though."

"That's okay. You did say you didn't want to talk in the first place."

"hm."

"So... do you want me to go, and, uh, leave you to it?" you asked, not wanting to push him too much.

"...nah. stay. i don't think i wanna be alone anymore today."

His response was unexpected, but not a request you'd deny. Especially not after you noticed the small translucent red droplets forming at the corners of his eyesockets, threatening to spill.

"Sure thing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bluhhhhhhhhhhh because there's not enough sad Sans stuff in the world right?? mhm  
> there was gonna be a little more here but I rly don't feel like writing it atm and I've kept y'all waiting long enough so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm posting this chapter now bc I want to  
> hmu @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com i'm a lonely child ( °٢° )


	9. New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Going new places, meeting new people, getting new things, and feeling new things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm real tired \o/

Tomorrow is a new day, as they say, and it indeed was. Another new something was you waking up before the skeleton beside you did, the reverse being what pretty much always happened in the mornings while you were down here.

Yet another something new? He was leaning on you in his unconscious state, holding onto you relatively tightly. Despite his grip on you, though, he looked calm, untroubled... comfortable.

As much as you wanted to get up and do stuff, you weren't about to bring him back to reality just yet. He dealt with that enough anyways, if yesterday was any indicator. Speaking of, you hoped the time you'd spent with him then had been some kind of help.

But with your refusal to wake him came a question: what were you going to do while you lay in wait? There was a book on the bedside table, one you'd been reading while you'd kept Sans company previously... well, as much as you didn't quite want to re-read it yet again, you weren't likely to get back to sleep all that soon, and there wasn't too much else you _could_ do besides that... so you grabbed it, careful not to disturb him, and flipped to the first page again.

* * *

Eventually, Sans awoke, yawning and slowly opening his eye sockets. Instinct told him to let go, to back off in a hurry, when he found his arms around you, but for some reason... he couldn't. He... didn't want to?

Instead, he closed his eyes again, opting to give into whatever part of him was happy to hold onto you (and your admittedly soft, squishy, and kind of comforting human body - god, and you were warm, too, like a big hot water bottle).

He was sure he felt you quickly flinch when he relaxed himself again, but was assured when you calmly greeted him.

"Morning, Sans."

"mm... hey, Y/N." he mumbled in response.

"Sleep well?"

"well, i definitely slept."

"Oh." You paused, somewhat surprised and saddened. "Did you have a bad dream or something?"

"nah, nah, i'm- i'm kiddin'." he hurriedly assured you. "slept fine. good. better than i have in a long time, honestly. maybe ever."

You smiled at that. "Well... that's good to hear!"

"yeah. guess ya helped out more than i thought ya would. thanks."

"No problem. I'm glad I could do something, and not just... be a burden on you guys until I figure out what I'm meant to be doing here."

Sans raised his skull and blinked at you, then wen back to his previous comfortable position. "ya ain't a burden on nobody, don't worry."

"A-are you su-" you began, cut off by the skeleton.

"yup. 'specially not right now, i gotta say." He emphasised his point by burying his skull into your shoulder.

You chuckled. "Didn't peg you as a cuddly type."

"'m not." he grumbled. "'m just still tired. and you're pretty nice to hold onto."

"...Are you maybe a little touch starved?" you theorised aloud.

"hmm. dunno what you're on about."

"Never mind."

Sans cracked open an eye then and noticed your book. "that one again?"

"Huh?"

"the book. ain'tcha read that one already? a couple times now?"

"Oh, that" you said, closing it up. "Yeah, a few. Wasn't really spoiled for choice earlier, though. And this is probably the best one you guys have.

"hmm..." Sans thought for a moment, scratching his skull. "tell ya what, gimme a little while longer to catch some zs, and i'll help ya get somethin' a little more _novel_ than what ya got there."

* * *

You were preparing for another shortcut, as Sans' mysterious little scheme apparently called for, and he took note of the fact that you weren't grumbling about the whole affair this time.

"heh, no complainin'? the shortcuts're gettin' better, huh?"

"Yeah," you answered, shrugging. "Just had to get the first ones out of the way, right?"

"yup. shouldn't be bad at all after this one." he said, taking your hand in his own. "now, ya know the drill. hold on."

You closed your eyes, bracing yourself, then, in a second, the room around you disappeared, replaced with an entirely new place. Your feet touched down on soft ground, and when you opened your eyes once more, they showed you an ever so slightly blurry image of your surroundings before focusing & showing you that the softness beneath you was a large, golden bed of flowers, not dissimilar to the ones you'd landed on when you fell, but... droopier.

"ah, shit." you heard Sans curse, catching your attention.

"W-what? Is something wrong?" you asked as you looked around the room.

It was some kind of large hall, the floor completely covered by the yellow flowers. The walls were of a similar hue, and the windows that adorned them, with their intricate designs, gave the room a definite sense of grandeur. At both ends of the hall were doorways, with places unknown to you beyond them, and in front of one door sat two thrones, both drenched in purple and gold.

"yeah... guess i fucked up the shortcut somehow - this ain't where i meant to take us."

"Well... where is this then?"

He sighed. "welcome to the royal throne room."

"Woah," you exclaimed at the new knowledge of where you were standing. "So, is this, like, a palace or something?"

"kinda, yeah, i guess ya could say that. it ain't exactly a palace, but it's as close as you're gonna get down here."

"Are we even allowed to be here?"

"uh, yeah." Sans snickered. "as if those old goats ain't gonna let me wander wherever i want when they're askin' so much of me."

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" came a sudden voice from the doorway behind you and Sans.

The two of you whipped around to find the voice's source, and saw... a small goat person in a stripy jumper?

"fuck." Sans sighed.

"What? Sans, who's this?" you asked. The goat beat the skeleton to the punch, though.

"I'm Asriel! I'm the prince of the Underground! Now, I know who Sans is, but who the heck are you?" he questioned, pointing to you.

"Oh, uh, my name's Y/N. I-"

"Oh! Wait! You're the human, right? Oh man, that's so cool!"

"hey, how'd ya know about 'em?" Sans asked incredulously.

"Heard Mom and Dad talking about you two." Asriel explained, sauntering past you before sittin on the arm of one of the thrones, swinging his legs. "Yeah, I dunno if it's a secret that you're here or not, but I found out. I always find out about this kinda stuff. Anyways, you guys never answered me! Why are you guys all the way out here?"

"important shit. quit buttin' into business that ain't yours, pipsqueak."

"Ohhhh, language, Sans! I'm only little, remember! Can't be corrupting our youth like that!" the goat chuckled.

"yeah, right, i couldn't give less of a fuck about that, y'know."

You marvelled for a moment at the dismissive tone Sans took with who was apparently a prince. You knew he was close to the monster royalty, what with his special job he'd been given, but it was still certainly something to see his banter with the child.

"Whatever." he shrugged. "I won't tattle on you guys. Then later on, I bet I can get something out of this little encounter!"

" _you little shit_ \- hey, how's about this for gettin' somethin' outta this: _everyone bein' freed from the underground_ , huh?"

"Oh, right, I forgot, that's your whole thing at the moment, yeah?"

Asriel followed himself up by clasping his hands together and making kissy faces at you both, looking back and forth between you two, in a way that... didn't quite make sense to you.

"Hah, that's gross, I could never-"

"alright, brat, that's enough," Sans interrupted, stomping towards the boy. "ya better shut your trap or ya might lose what little ya got of those little nubby-ass horns there."

"Uh, Sans?" you piped up. "Isn't that a bit much? I mean, he's just a kid... maybe lay off him a little?"

Sans huffed, stepping back, and paused.

"was that a pun?"

"Huh?" You pondered, then it hit you. _Kid, goat child..._

"Oh! Hah, I get it!" Asriel exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah, I guess it was, accidentally, yeah!"

"heh." Sans chuckled quietly, mood lifted somewhat, and moved back over to you. "well, _azzy_ , we've goat to get goin'. can't spend all day babysittin'. ya better not tell nobody we were here."

The prince sighed. "Yeah, yeah, okay. I wasn't gonna tell anyways. Mom and Dad said it'd be better if there was 'less conflict surrounding you guys' or something, and I guess you getting in trouble for trespassing probably counts." He hopped down from the throne, and headed for the door he entered through. "Bye, Sans! Bye, Y/N! Good luck not getting caught or anything!"

"Oh, uh, bye, Asriel!" you called back, barely getting the words out before he disappeared.

"yeah, later, ya tiny fucker." Sans said, rolling his eyes.

You smirked at him. "You're pretty incredible with kids, huh?"

"oh, i'm the best. now, c'mon, let's go find what we're here for."

He held out a hand, and you took it knowingly, ending up once again in a new place a moment later. The image of the room cleared up, and you found yourself in a room almost resembling a pawn shop, or something of the like, similar in size and shape to the hall you'd just been in.

"ah, yeah, now this is it."

"...And what is... 'it', exactly?"

"secret room i found - don't ask how - where the king and queen hide all the real good shit that falls in the dump that they snatch up before anyone else can get to it. fancy stuff, relatively high tech stuff, shit like that. and one thing they've gotten a real big collection of in this lil' secret room..."  
He gestured behind you as he paused, speaking again when you turned around.

"...is books."

...They certainly did. Before you stood shelves, spanning the entire wall, filled with books.

"Woah. Damn." was your simple response.

"go ahead, take a look, grab any you're interested in."

"Wait," you hesitated. "Sans, I'm pretty sure that's a thing called stealing."

"psh." The skeleton shrugged. "the old goats'd never miss any of this crap in here. c'mon, let's do this before somebody less lenient with the law as the prince is finds us."

* * *

Books: obtained.

You and Sans: home.

Quiet night: in.

You were digging into one of your new books beside Sans on the couch, with some burning questions now making it hard to actually pay attention to the literature.

"Hey, Sans?" you decided to finally ask.

"hm?" he responded, looking up from what you guessed was another joke/physics book hybrid.

"What did Asriel mean with all that, like... _'mwah, mwah'_ stuff he was doing earlier?"

Sans tensed up at your question.

"Do I... you... do we have to kiss? Is that what he was getting at? It kind of confused me in the moment, and then I forgot about it because of what was going on, but I just... y'know, I had to ask."

_Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck, this was not the conversation he wanted to be having right now._

"Is that what the whole 'breaking the spell' thing entails? Do I have to kiss you? Because, I mean... I-I'm okay with that, if that's the case. I'll kiss you."

...Well, it wasn't like he'd be lying if he told you that you were wrong.

"that it were true, Y/N, that it were true." Sans sighed. "yeah, nah. if only it were as simple as that."

"Oh, uh, okay, sorry, yeah. You would've asked me to do it already if it were that easy. Sorry."

"'s okay." he said, shrugging.

"Just, uh, forget about it. That was weird. Again. Sorry."

"hey, i told ya, don't sweat it." At least that would make one less of you doing so.

"Y-yeah, okay. And, uh... you still don't remember what the actual way to break the spell is?"

"not a clue."

"Right. Alright."

You went back to your respective books, and back to the silence.

...Aaand now Sans couldn't get the image out of his head of that actually happening. Great.

Asriel sure had one thing right. Gross. As if he'd want to kiss you. No thanks. Nuh uh. Bad image. Bad, bad- okay maybe it wasn't _that_ ba-

"So, you're not actually allowed to go traipsing around the palace-y place, huh?" you suddenly asked, de-railing his train of thought.

Sans chuckled. "ya caught me. nope, 'm not."

"...Do you know what would've happened if we'd been caught there?"

"nuh uh. jeez, what's with all the questions? ya got any more there?"

You pondered his own question for a second. "Hmm... actually, yeah!"

"that was rhetorical, but continue, i guess."

"So, um, if you don't wanna talk about it, I understand, but... you know that whole thing we talked about last night? The 'resets' and all that?"

"all too fuckin' well, yep."

"Okay, well, uh, in the other... timelines? In those, did you meet me before? Like, do you know what I'm gonna do next?"

He was silent for a few moments as he thought. "actually... no. nah, you're new."

"Really?"

"yeah. everybody else i've always seen before, but... the first time ya met me was the first time i met you. weird, huh?"

"Oh. Yeah, that is weird."

Pretty weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you tell I kind of rushed the ending lmao whoops  
> so yeah Asriel's alive in this au bc it works? in the timeline of events in this story and also I just needed a cameo w/ the goat son even if he is The Littlest Shit now  
> bluh this chapter felt so much longer while I was writing it ;;;;; why must my perception deceive me  
> anyways I can't think of anything else to say so it's beddybyes for me  
> screm w/ me at my tumblr @ lollyholly99.tumblr.com I need friends


	10. Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You and Sans have a little bit of a tiff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fukc I'm sorry this took forever I've been in sUCH a writing slump. but I finally got this chapter finished and I'm back again woooooooo   
> not much to say here this time except apologies for everything haha. enjoy ^^

Another quiet day in the snowy monster town of Snowdin. Although, you could only be sure that the quietness was where you and Sans were, within the walls of the skeletons' house in the middle of the chilly town. Who knew what sorts of things were going on elsewhere?

Sans was skipping work again, getting his brother off his back about it with the claim that you'd be safer in the house rather than in the middle of the woods. Amazingly, Papyrus had given in quite quickly, and since Sans wasn't leaving, you weren't either.

With all the talk of Sans' job - his real one, the sentry one, not the one involving protecting you - you couldn't help but reminisce about the last time you'd seen him actually go to work. That day a handful of days ago, when he'd taken you with him, and... he'd ended up skipping work that time, too. Did this guy actually do _anything_?

Then you'd come across the dust... and the frogs... who were there because Sans had killed that one before them...

Wow. What a depressing thing to start your lunchtime thinking about.

Sans noticed your sudden drop in expression and the way your plate dropped from your hands ever so slightly as you started looking off into nothing, and spoke up.

"hey, what's up with you?" he asked through his mouthful of sandwich, similar to the one he'd (surprisingly enough) made for you as well. "your _sanswich_ taste funny or somethin'?"

You quickly snapped out of your state at the questioning. "Oh, nah, no, it's not that, I just..." you sighed. "Nothing."

"look," he pressed. "i dunno if ya know, and i know it don't look like it, but i know when shit's goin' on with people up in their noggins. and i can tell somethin's up with ya."

"R-really! It's nothing. I'm just having a funny five minutes. It's nothing important, you don't have to-"

"Y/N." he said sternly. "ya didn't pester me about openin' up a couple days ago just to tell me 'nothin'' today. out with it, what's buggin' ya? it's somethin'."

...Well, he certainly had a point there.

You caved. "I don't know. Out of the blue, I... thought about those frogs that attacked us that one time, and I just... feel kinda bad, y'know?"

Sans' face turned to one of annoyance, and he groaned. "you're all hung up on this crap again? law of the land, pal, kill or be killed. ain't no need to worry 'bout all that."

"I... I know that's how it is down here, it's just that... I don't know... i-it's wrong! It's all so weird, and I don't know how to deal with it!"

"Y/N, for fuck's sake, i thought you'd be better than this at adjustin' to monster society - if ya can even call it that - by now. what's a couple'a froggy shits mean to us when we're out here tryin' to survive? they're better off dead, if ya ask me."

You were taken aback a little by the comment. "W-well, _I_ would've thought _you'd_ be a little better about giving a damn about the lives you're taking!"  
" _oh, so sorry_ for not bein' so lucky that i was born up on the surface where you can afford to be pansy-asses like you are!" he responed sarcastically, clasping his hands. "look, i was born and bred in this shit. you weren't, so ya don't know, but ya kinda _can't_ give a damn down here. that's how it is."

"You could at least try! And you don't _have_ to kill, there are other ways to live!"

"not. here."

"Yes. Here."

"alright," He shrugged, sitting back. "what the fuck do _you_ suggest, then? what do you wanna do, when, bear in mind, there're monsters out there who don't fuckin' care about bein' civil, who'd rather kill ya on the spot over anythin' else, and ya might not be able to run away? what then?"

"Then..!" You were silenced by his question. Just as he'd expected.

"yeah. ya kill 'em. or ya die yourself. that's what happens."

"N-no! I-"

Sans groaned again at your protst, standing up and grabbing his sandwich. "goddamnit, ya just won't listen! fuck this, i'm done."

Before you or he could say anything more, he'd shortcutted somewhere else. His room, presumably, judging by the movement you could hear from upstairs.

You were pretty prepared to say 'fuck this' too, then. He had to have known you didn't mean situations like that, what the hell kind of question was that?!

God, you needed some air. The atmosphere the room had been left with was stifling, tension and agitated magic filling the living room.

"...Asshole." you mumbled, heading for the door. You opened it, stepping outside into the wintry air of the town, and closed the door behind you.

...Of course, the level of tension wasn't great out here, either, but at least some sort of breeze was blowing out here, so it was marginally better. You took a few steps, thinking a short amble around what you guessed equated to the skeletons' front lawn couldn't hurt. Then, spurred on by a sudden urge, you took a few more steps, further out. And a few more. And a few more. And more, and more, and then the house was disappearing behind you.

_Fuck it._

You walked on, aimlessly shuffling through the snow. Where were you going? Who knew? Definitely away from Sans. Just for a little while. Being stuck in that one house with him was getting to you, you guessed. Maybe you should go try and find Papyrus; some quality time with him instead could be nice - better than his brother right now, that was for sure.

It was quiet in Snowdin today, even moreso than the times you'd been out here with Sans. It almost looked like some kind of ghost town - which was a thought that was just eerie enough that you were uncomfortable again.

Taking a deep breath, you headed on, into the woods, ignoring the more sensible part of your brain that urged you to stay, to go back indoors, to at least stay in sight of the house. No thanks.

* * *

Sans lay in his bed, facing the wall, his pillow wrapped about his head, distancing himself from the world so much he didn't even hear the front door click shut downstairs.

Of course. Why did he think he'd found someone who... understood him, or whatever? _Of course_. If someone's not berating him for not having the capacity to care about most things anymore, thanks to all the crap he's been through, they're getting at him for the way all monsters are. Of. Course.

God, why'd _he_ have to get stuck with the human? The thing that was too weak to be alone, and too dumb to realise what kind of world this was. A weirdly fragile being, without an ounce of magic running through them, that he had to look after, and explain shit to again and again, and.... and... ugh.

Worst of all, now he felt... like a bit of a dick. Did you have to make a face like that when he'd tried (and succeeded) to stump you? He'd been right (hadn't he?), what else would there be to do? What else has there ever been to do?

...He supposed you did have somewhat of a point, though. Too bad the people it really applied to didn't have the sense in them to listen to feasible ideas like yours.

Even if you didn't have a decent argument, though, the whole thing had gone and made him feel shitty. And not in the usual way he would feel, either. From what he was gathering, it came from seeing you feeling bad. From _making_ you feel bad.

_...What the fuck._

For a moment, he wondered whether he should go and apologise to you, but his stubbornness quelled that thought swiftly. No thanks.

* * *

You'd gotten further into the woods than you'd expected in your quest to clear your head. You'd followed what looked to be a sort of main path, though, so it wasn't as if you were lost.

No monster encounters yet, luckily, in the few minutes you'd been walking. Maybe, you thought, you should turn back before that could change...?

Probably. You turned on your heel, heading back in the direction you came from, just about ready to face the grumpy skeleton again. The time to himself had probably allowed him to chill out, right? Off you went.

...Or, you would have, had you not heard a crunching of snow some short distance away.

"Oh, shit." you cursed under your breath, unsure of the cause of the noise, but knowing it was likely a monster.

Warily, you made your way over to the nearest tree, hiding behind it and listening out for anything else. Your heart was suddenly racing, and your breathing had quickened, and the only thought that ran through your head was _this was a terrible idea._

You peeked out from your hiding spot, just a little, but you had no way to tell whether the monsters that you saw walking by were friend or foe. Two large bird monsters, about as big as you, with patterns resembling a snowflake stretching across their faces. You'd never seen them before, and Sans had never mentioned them, as far as you could remember... how they'd react to you was anyone's guess.

At the very least, they didn't look incredibly friendly, and you didn't want to get too near to them. You'd just have to wait for them to pass by, you decided. Then you'd head home.

...As soon as they left.

...Any second now... Any... second...

...Why weren't they leaving?!

You sneaked another peek at the birds, and saw then leaning against two nearby trees, chatting about something you couldn't hear clearly. Great, they'd decided right here and now was the best place and time to loiter around. How in the hell were you going to get home without being spotted now?

One of them seemed to look in your direction, and you ducked back behind the tree, clutching your chest anxiously. Thankfully, they hadn't actually seen you, but... now you were trapped.

You considered your other options. You could try dashing out or sneaking past them - a terrible idea, way too risky - or you could maybe wait there and hope Papyrus' patrol route came this way - better, but still up to chance, still pretty risky - or maybe...

...Oh, goddamnit, you had a phone. How could you forget that?!

With shaking hands, you pulled your phone from your pocket quickly after your little revelation. Then, pulling up a text conversation with Sans, you fired off a quick plea for help.

[Hey I kind of wandered off into the woods because I was upset and now I'm stuck behind this tree bc there's monsters here and I don't know if they're gonna attack me or not]

[Yeah I know I'm an idiot and all and I shouldnt've done it and I'm sorry but can you come help??]

[I'm somewhere along the path. Not sure where exactly]

After hitting send, your jittering hand put away the device, and you prepared for whatever wait there was ahead of you.

God, you hoped he'd be there soon.

* * *

Despite your little spat making him feel like shit, Sans supposed he at least enjoyed the peace and quiet he was getting because of it.

No whiny human for a while. The house was just... quiet. How he liked it.

...But it was _too_ quiet.

Sans realised he couldn't hear anything from you now. Couldn't hear you shuffling around downstairs at all. Not that you were loud, by any means, but the house was silent enough to hear a pin drop, and the walls weren't tremendously thick. You'd even left all your reading material up in your shared- his - bedroom, and you hadn't even turned on the TV or anything.

Something was up. Unless you were asleep or something, but he doubted that - he was the resident any-situation-nap-taker in this household.

As he rolled over, readying himself to get up and investigate, his phone buzzed, almost on cue. He made to ignore it, focused on the task at hand, but quickly gave in to his curiosity. With a quick glance at the phone, he discovered it had gone off because of... three texts from you?

He read them over, and... _oh, fucking hell-_

* * *

For minutes on end, you hid and waited, too afraid and unwilling to move. And those birds were _still_ just standing around. More importantly, there was no sign of either skeleton coming to help you.

Was this your fate? For your stupid little journey into the woods? Doomed to freeze to death or be found by potentially dangerous monsters and maybe get killed?

...Okay, that was a little melodramatic, you had to admit. But you were definitely in a bad, hopeless-looking situation.

You resigned yourself to leaning against the tree, giving in to your lack of options. You could still hold onto something, though, even if you felt it unlikely. Maybe they'd be gone soon. Maybe you'd work up the courage to run. Maybe they'd be too slow to catch you, or not notice you at all. Better yet, maybe they were actually not in the mood to murder you on the spot, or-

You flinched as your phone chimed, rather loudly.

Fumbling with the thing in your surprised panic, you looked at the screen. "Low Battery!" it read. "15%".

_So much for keeping quiet and hidden_ , you thought. _Thanks for turning the volume down, past me!_

Your self-scolding was interrupted by sudden silence from the birds' direction, then the crunching of snow under their taloned footsteps. They stalked ever closer to you, your legs shaking and threatening to buckle. Petrified, stuck behind the tree, you cursed yourself again. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

The monsters' walk over to you somehow felt like it took forever and like it had happened in the blink of an eye at the same time. And while you trembled from head to toe, you were stock still.

The birds finally came into view again, mere feet away, staring harshly at you with sinister smiles painted on their faces. Yeah, definitely not friendly.

The monsters shared a frightening look, then looked back towards you again. A second later, and they were lunging at you, laughing, their talons outstretched and pointed towards you.

With a yelp, you flung yourself out of the way, into the snow, but just half a second too late, one set of their sharp claws catching you and scraping a sizable series of crimson lines down your arm. You yelled at the pain from the newly formed and bleeding gashes, trying to scramble to your feet again before the birds could attack once more. Stumbling a little as you began, you broke into a sprint, heading in the direction of Snowdin, trying to ignore the shooting pain in your limb.

The monsters kept up with you well enough, though, as you found from looking back every few seconds. They cackled the whole while, taunting you and your attempted escape. That was okay, you thought, not actually thinking all that much. As long as they didn't go any faster, you could reach Snowdin and get to safety. Somehow. You'd go home and get Sans, or go to Grillby's; someone there would surely help, wouldn't they-

All of a sudden, your balance disappeared and you toppled over, your foot having gotten caught on a small rock buried in the snow.  
Your breaths coming quick and heavy, you attempted to push yourself back to your feet once more, but your bad arm slipped, and you found yourself with a face full of snow again.

With little left that you could do, you turned to look at your pursuers. They were close, and getting closer, so much closer...

You found yourself unable to move again, only staring into the terrible eyes before you. Then, one bird was upon you, its talons reaching for your neck. The claws dug in, so much so that you felt more blood, hot against your cold skin, running from the punctures. The bird tightened its grip, and your shortness of breath grew even shorter. The other one watched on, moving closer so as to join in the attack, and they chuckled as you struggled to free yourself.

_This is it_ , you thought, growing lightheaded. You'd made a dumb move one too many times, like falling in this mountain, and not putting your phone on silent, and running off, and now you were going to die. _Great fucking job._

As the edges of your vision began to darken, a familiar noise came from some distance away. The next second, a beam of red light shot past you, through the leg pinning your neck to the cold forest floor.

The bird screeched in pain and fell backwards, leaving behind the now-severed foot on your neck that swiftly faded into dust, letting your breathe and move once more. With your newfound freedom, you crawled backwards, as far away from the monsters as possible. They didn't follow, instead growling and turning their attention to the source of the beam, as you also did.

_Holy shit - Sans!_

"alright, you two," he shouted, scowling. "ya better fuck off right back where ya came from 'fore i do a whole lot more than just fuck up that leg of yours!"

His hand stayed raised, that animal skull you'd seen before floating above him.

"i'll give ya three seconds to run back to your shitty neck of the woods." he continued. "one... two..."

The monsters ignored his words, throwing themselves at him before he could reach three, with the injured one using its wings to propel itself forward rather than the one leg it had. Sans dodged them easily with a shortcut, lobbing conjured bones at them when he reappeared - which impaled one of each of their wings. They both tumbled into the snow, howling in their pain.

The skeleton walked over to the immobilised bird monsters, a rage-filled expression pointed at them. He raised one hand to summon the skull again, a sharp-ended bone in his other hand. The skull charged up, making that sound again, and Sans prepared to fire it.

Then, he looked to where you were watching intently, gripping your injured arm and neck, and his hand fell slightly, hesitant. His gaze flitted between you and the bird monsters for a few seconds before he growled in frustration. He hastily threw the bone into the less injured one's leg and dissipated the skull, and teleported to you.

"S-Sans..." you stuttered out, looking up at him. "I..."

"shut up." he interrupted, and raised a hand towards you.

A tightness in your chest that you faintly recognised appeared, and you were listed into the air by some invisible force, moved into Sans' now outstretched arms so he carried you, bridal style.

In a flash, you were gone from the forest, Sans having shortcutted you both. The expanse of snow and trees was replaced with the familiarity of the skeletons' living room, and the sounds of the bird monsters' pained yells was replaced with the relatively quiet heavy breathing from the two of you.

Sans dropped you on the sofa unceremoniously and sighed, turning away from you. The room was quiet as you both caught your breath, until you finally spoke.

"Sans, oh my god, I... thankyo-"

"Y/N, what in the _fuck_ ," he said with an edge to his voice, turning back to you again. "did i say about goin' outside alone?"

You stared back, wide eyed, at the intimidating lack of lights in his own eyes, as you worked up the nerve to answer. "N-not to do it. I know, I know, I just... emotions were running high, and I wasn't thinking, and I... I'm sorry."

He clenched his fists. " _sorry_?! i..."

Just as Sans prepared to launch into an angry tirade, he stopped himself. He huffed another sigh, and placed himself on the other side of the couch, dropping his head into his hands. "agh, fuck..."

"Sans?" you questioned, concerned at the sudden halting.

"god," He forced a laugh. "ya sure don't make this job any easier."

"...I'm s-"

"don't." he said firmly, stopping you apologising again, his strained smile disappearing. "just... hmph..."

He looked away then, avoiding your gaze.

"if ya wanna leave so badly, why dont'cha just fuckin' do it already?"

You blinked in confusion. "I don't... w-what?"

"ya heard me. go home. back to the surface. where ya don't gotta deal with me, or this shitty place, or anythin'."

The words, and the empty tone in his voice, took you by surprise.

"I... I can't, though..."

"oh, you absolutely _can_ , though. just 'cause the barrier ain't broken don't mean _you_ can't cross it."

Curiosity overtook you.

"...How?"

"hm." Another faux chuckle. "well, the only way to get through the barrier is with a live human soul... and, uh, hmm, somethin' else." He tapped his chin, pretending to think.

There was a pause, and you held your breath as you waited for him to 'remember'.

"oh, yeah. a soul from a dead monster."

You were taken aback by that piece of information, to say the least.

"I-I..."

"kill a monster, take their soul, and you can get outta here, no problem."

Silence permeated the air as you took in the idea of this new possibility. It didn't even occur to you that it had been hidden from you this whole time. If anything, it was reasonable that no-one told you; the monsters wanted to leave the underground just as much as you did.

You could be free. You could be safe again, truly safe. In one fell swoop, you could go home and leave everything from this place behind.

...And you would have the terms of your escape weigh heavy upon you.

"so, how's that sound, huh? 'cause, y'know, fuck it, i know ya just can't stand bein' here."

Even - no, especially - with his sarcastic taunting...

"...I can't do it."

Sans tutted. "knew ya wouldn't. i knew your damn disposition wouldn't let ya kill, even when it's for your own good."

"N-no, it's not because of that. I mean, not entirely."

"...huh?"

"Well," you began, explaining for the visibly confused skeleton. "I... I can't leave. Not yet. I still have to break the barrier, don't I?

"but you could just... go. y'know that, right?"

You smiled a gentle smile. "And leave you behind? Nuh uh. I've got a debt to repay to you for helping me out this whole time."

"...you'd free all us monsters just for me?"

"It's more for the sake of all of you, and trying to fix what us humans have done, but... yeah, hah, that definitely is a decent part of the reason I want to do it."

Sans paused again, his expression going blank. "huh. damn."

"Yeah, I don't know exactly what you mean by taking souls, but- agh!" You went to shrug, but the movement of your arm reminded you of the bleeding wounds there and on your neck. They managed to catch Sans' attention too.

"ah, shit! almost forgot about that. lemme fix ya up real qu- uh..."

He suddenly paused in leaning over and reaching towards you, concern growing on his face.

"ya alright there? you're lookin' pretty wobbly..."

Oh... you were? You looked up and down yourself, at your hands, your legs... oh. You were.

"Y/N? h-hey, _hey, Y/N!_ "

His words trailed off and faded away, as did the image of him. And then you passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (bluhhhhhhh is it just me or does the pacing this chapter feel weird. and the whole conflict sucks. and ughh there was gonna be more at the end but phhhhblllt. it's not here for Reasons.)  
> so like. I'm thinking there's maybe 3/4 chapters left that I can wring out of my planning notes for this. just to forewarn you guys. and considering how my brain apparently hates me they're not likely to come out soon so there's a double warning  
> I rly kinda wanna take a break from this fic and do other things but at the same time I just wanna get it over and done with so I can feel less bad abt starting a new one that I've got in the works? so I end up just. doing nothing. but I'm gonna definitely try for that 2nd option bc y'all deserve it for still following this thing \o/  
> anyways ty ily all!! come yell at me abt my stupid writing on my tumblr (of the same name as here) uwu  
> <3


End file.
